"The U.S. Military Index", Foreign Policy, March/April 2008:
Much more at the link.In an exclusive new index, Foreign Policy and the Center for a New American Security surveyed more than 3,400 active and retired officers at the highest levels of command about the state of the U.S. military. They see a force stretched dangerously thin and a country ill-prepared for the next fight.
The title seems to echo the "Misery Index" of almost a generation ago in the U.S.; now an analogue has been created for the U.S. Armed Forces. That said, if Foreign Policy is awakening to the stresses and strains within the Armed Forces, and taking sufficient interest to actually go out and interview 3,400 current and former officers and to actually seek out their views, then there is at least the chance for some greater exposure of civilians (and especially policy-makers) to some of the problems trhat the military is saddled with:
Hopefully some of them read Foreign Policy?Yet, even as the U.S. military is being asked to sustain an unprecedented pace of operations across the globe, many Americans continue to know shockingly little about the forces responsible for protecting them. Nearly 70 percent of Americans report that they have a high level of confidence in the military, yet fewer than 1 in 10 has ever served. Politicians often speak favorably about people in uniform, but less than one quarter of the U.S. Congress has donned a uniform. It is not clear whether the speeches and sound bites we hear from politicians and experts actually reflect the concerns of those who protect our nation.
Bookmarks