AMERICAN MILITARY EFFECTIVENESS

The major lesson for other countries from America's changed attitude toward its defense strategy, and specifically from the Second Gulf War and its aftermath is that the United States is able to defend itself effectively – it is no paper tiger. We have however developed an extremely effective military; one of which Americans are increasingly proud.

A few years ago, in the period between the two Iraqi wars, the Minister of Defense of a major European power at a dinner conversation commented on his meetings with the American military leadership and his assessment of their performance in Iraq in the early 1990s. “You'd be amazed at how good these Americans really are these days,” he said. “They're committed, hard-working, very professional. There's nothing else to match them in the world today. I'm just amazed. It's a totally different situation from the American military in the Vietnam War.”

He was right, and his judgment has been confirmed again in the second Iraqi War. That a significant outcome of the Iraq engagement was to demonstrate American military effectiveness is confirmed by the now revealed desire of the French military forces to participate in the invasion (although they were refused the opportunity by French political leaders for reasons that had much to do with the political rivalry between France/EC on one side and the United States on the other).