The US-led invasion of Iraq has been criticized from the very beginning even by those who supported the invasion. Some of the U.S. military with hands-on knowledge of combat operations strategy also leveled their harshest criticism at the government. More critical voices could be heard as the congressional midterm election was drawing near. Predictably enough, the Republicans lost the election. A small article that appeared in the volume 4 of the 2006 Joint Force Quarterly, a magazine published by the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies, is the latest example of a constructive and consistent analysis of the weaknesses in U.S. foreign policy examined from the military standpoint.
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The National Defense University (NDU) is an institution of higher education established specifically for the U.S. military, and therefore it would be difficult to suspect NDU of any kind of disloyalty toward the U.S. government. NDU operates under direct leadership and control of the Pentagon. It has long become one of the major U.S. institutions specialized in training of mid-level and senior military officers. On the face of it, the article penned by Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall looks quite loyal to the Pentagon too. Sherwood-Randall served as deputy assistant secretary of defense under the first Clinton Administration (1994-1996). In an apparent attempt to dispel any doubts about her patriotism, Sherwood-Randall solemnly declares at the beginning of her analysis that today’s United States is the “world’s most powerful nation, the only superpower.” However, she begins to touch on lots of ifs, ands or buts thereafter.
According to her analysis, the “superpower” is capable of acting on its own only within certain limits. For example, America cannot independently prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction nor can it hold in check the so-called rogue nations, which have been rapidly transforming into a breeding ground for terrorists and an assortment of perpetrators. Sherwood-Randall is very consistent in her explanations with regard to specific characteristics of military alliances. She stresses the point that the characteristics are undergoing changes these days. For example, the allies would help one another only in case of a critical situation in the past. Nowadays the allies simply cannot do without continuous bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the field defense and security.
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