Anthony Cordesman provides a useful reminder following the mess tent bombing in Mosul: beware of political and media opportunists who will howl for more "protection" of the troops.
Americans cannot see a tragedy like last week's attack on a military mess tent in Mosul, Iraq, without wondering how it could ever have occurred — and how it can be prevented from ever happening again. Like the furor over improved armor for trucks and Humvees, the attack rouses the instinct to make force protection the immediate priority for U.S. forces in Iraq. No American wants American soldiers to be vulnerable.Posted by Alan at December 28, 2004 09:20 AMThese instincts, however, are wrong. The United States can win in Iraq only through offensive action. It cannot afford to make every American base a fortress, or to disperse scarce manpower and other military resources in force-protection missions. U.S. forces have to be mobile and able to redeploy where the threat is — even though such redeployments often mean moving forces to vulnerable areas. If the Pentagon concentrates on protecting troops in the short run, the war will last longer and total casualties will be greater. Worse, the United States will simply never win.