We wanted to highlight a speech by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Feb. 24. He talks about reforming security cooperation. Here's a snippet:
No doubt, our global security environment has been radically transformed since that era – more complex, more unpredictable, and, even without a superpower adversary, in many ways more dangerous. Our military – though resilient in spirit and magnificent in performance – is under stress and strain fighting two wars and confronting diffuse challenges around the globe.
In Iraq, we have shifted almost entirely to an advisory and support mission. American troop levels are projected to drop as low as 50,000 by this fall, and go to zero at the end of 2011. In Afghanistan, U.S. force levels will near 100,000 this year, and our troops and allies are in the midst of the biggest military offensive of the war. But, as the President has said, the purpose of these operations is to set the conditions that will allow the Afghans to take responsibility for their own security.
More broadly, there continues to be a struggle for legitimacy, loyalty, and power across the Islamic world between modernizing, moderate forces, and the violent, extremist organizations embodied by Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other such groups. We are unlikely to repeat a mission on the scale of Iraq or Afghanistan anytime soon – that is, forced regime change followed by nation-building under fire. But, as the department’s Quadrennial Defense Review recently concluded, we are still likely to face scenarios calling on a familiar tool-kit of capabilities, albeit on a smaller scale.
Link to the full speech is here.
