This essay is part of the ongoing American Security Project series, Iraq: Lessons Learned [1]. Read more essays in this series here [2].
By Lawrence J. Korb
[3]November 7, 2007
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One of the lessons of Iraq is that our nation’s All-Volunteer Army (AVA) has suffered significant long-term damage waging a long war it was not designed to fight.
When the Nixon administration ended the draft and switched to the All-Volunteer Force (AVF) in 1973, the service most affected was the Army. For all practical purposes, in the period of conscription that lasted from 1948 to 1973, the Army was the only service that had to rely on the draft to fulfill its manpower needs. (The Marines had to draft small numbers in the waning years of Vietnam and the Navy took in conscripts briefly in the mid 1950s.)
The AVA was to have four components: a comparatively small active force; a strategic reserve consisting of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve which would serve as a bridge to conscription if the nation became involved in a long war; a large pool of draft registrants which could be activated quickly; and private contractors who would take over mundane support functions like food service and routine maintenance.
This structure had two advantages.
First, it held down costs. Even though the size of the active Army was reduced, it still was the largest service and thus had the largest payroll. And with the creation of the AVF, the hidden tax of conscription ended and the cost of each soldier rose substantially. Second, a smaller force made it easier for the Army to recruit sufficient numbers of high quality personnel.
After getting off to a rough start, the AVA became a great success. By the mid 1980s, the active duty Army was comprised of high quality men and women. The Guard and Reserve were better trained and equipped than ever. Private contractors had assumed many of the routine support functions freeing up soldiers for combat missions. And after being discontinued briefly during the mid 1970s, draft registration was reinstituted and accepted by young men as part of becoming an adult.
The AVA performed very well in the Persian Gulf War. Tens of thousands of Guard and Reserve personnel were activated to support the hundreds of thousands of soldiers deployed to the Gulf. Private contractors provided food service and routine maintenance behind the lines and accounted for about 10 percent of those deployed in the Gulf. Since the war lasted only 37 days and the ground war only 100 hours, there was no need to reinstitute the draft and the reserves were demobilized after about six months.
The second Persian Gulf War – the invasion and occupation of Iraq which has now gone on for almost five years – is another story altogether. To maintain its troop levels in Iraq (as well as Afghanistan), the Army has had to violate its social contract with its active and reserve soldiers, use the Guard and Reserve as an operational rather than a strategic reserve, and rely on private contractors to perform military missions.
According to this social contract, active duty soldiers should get two years between one year deployments and reserves should not be activated more than one year out of six. Today, combat brigades are lucky to get one year between deployments of 15 months in Iraq. Many Guard units have been activated several times since 2001. These reserve units are essentially rotating with active units in maintaining force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2005, 40 percent of the troops in Iraq were from the reserve component. Their number, as a percentage of the force in Iraq, declined and lingered below 25 percent in 2007, but is expected to rise again in 2008.
The results of conducting this long war with an All-Volunteer Army have been devastating for the Army and the country. To meet its needs the active duty Army has had to lower its educational and aptitude standards to unprecedented levels; raised the age for enlistment to 42; shortened enlistments to as little as 15 months; and given bonuses of up to $70,000 for new recruits and up to $150,000 to keep soldiers in. Even with these steps, the Army has had to grant moral waivers (including for felony convictions) to more than 10 percent of its new recruits. West Point graduates are leaving the service in numbers not seen in 30 years, leaving the Army short thousands of Captains.
Private contractors outnumber military personnel in Iraq and have had to take on military missions. When performing these missions, some contract personnel have used force so indiscriminately that they have undermined the counterinsurgency strategy.
All of this could have been avoided if the Bush administration had invoked the third pillar of the AVF; that is, reinstating the draft to relieve the strain on the other three pillars. The question should be asked: If keeping some 200,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than four years is not enough to activate the draft, then what is? How much damage to the AVA will our political leaders tolerate before dipping into the pool of draft registrants?
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Dr. Lawrence J. Korb is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Defense Information. Prior to joining the Center, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. From July 1998 to October 2002, he was Council Vice President, Director of Studies, and holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair. Prior to joining the Council, Dr. Korb served as Director of the Center for Public Policy Education and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and Vice President of Corporate Operations at the Raytheon Company. Dr. Korb served as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics) from 1981 through 1985. In that position, he administered about 70 percent of the Defense budget. For his service in that position, he was awarded the Department of Defense's medal for Distinguished Public Service. Dr. Korb served on active duty for four years as a Naval Flight Officer, and retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Captain.