Military Over-Reach | WBUR and NPR - On Point with Tom Ashbrook

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2010

Thursday, July 31, 2003 at 10:00 AM EDT

Military Over-Reach

The war to oust Saddam and his alleged weapons of mass destruction employed fewer soldiers than the first gulf war but pacifying the Iraqi resistance may require additional troops. Is the American military stretched too thin?

If conflict flared in North Korea or elsewhere ,would the U.S. have the ability to respond? Questions about preparedness are leading some to suggest calling up additional National Guard troops or maybe even a draft but with the U.S. spending as much as the next 20 countries combined on it’s military, is growing the armed forces a realistic option?

Guests:

Lawrence Korb, director of national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former assistant secretary of defense

Max Boot, Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power

Owen Cote, Associate Director of the Securities Studies Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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