The revolution in Syria is well under way. The revolution in Libya struggles on. The Middle East is alight, yet most of America’s military commitment, and the political attention associated with it, remains in Afghanistan. Every day that the US worries about events such as the escape of hundreds of painstakingly detained insurgents from an Afghan jail is a day in which America loses the power of initiative elsewhere.
Two months ago Robert Gates, defence secretary, gave a speech about the future of the US army at West Point, saying that “any future defence secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it”. Mr Gates, a principal architect of the present commitment in Afghanistan, has since complained through his spokesman that this line was “hijacked” by critics. Gen MacArthur, also a principal advocate of a large-scale war in Asia, may not have uttered the words, but it is worth reflecting on what both these men were saying about the troubles of American grand strategy.
Mr Gates’ remarks came just as the new flare-up in Libya began and as pressure to develop military plans for a possible confrontation with Iran continues. It was a prepared remark, uttered with deliberation, by an experienced statesman. He had inherited an Afghan and Iraqi war. He helped to escalate the Iraq war in order to get to the place where he could pull out of it by the end of this year. He also helped to escalate the Afghan war, if with a longer-term vision that is harder to discern. Surely, whatever his prognosis, he regards the Afghan fight as a frustrating experience. Listening to his West Point address, I hear exasperation in his voice and the implied words: “Enough already.”