With 20,000 U.S. soldiers in Haiti, thousands targeted for Kuwait and 40,000 stationed in South Korea, Congress and the White House may want to rethink planned cutbacks in the military.
While none of these postings is permanent - some 6,000 will be withdrawn from Haiti soon - similar deployments can be expected in other trouble spots in what has turned out to be a restless and uncertain post-Cold War world.The administration has called for reducing Army divisions from 14 to 10, Air Force wings from 28 to 20 and aircraft carriers from 13 to 12 by the end of the century. The General Accounting Office says proposed Pentagon budgets during the next five years will be about $30 billion less than what is needed to fight more than one war at a time.
Yet that is exactly the contingency for which the administration says it is preparing. The idea of two wars at once doesn't sound so far-fetched in light of current situations.
U.S. troops have been involved in nine separate parts of the world so far in 1994, either on peacekeeping or humanitarian missions. At least three of those missions - Haiti, Kuwait and Korea - either had or still have the possibility of escalating into full-fledged wars.
The post-Cold War world is turning out to be a dangerous place. The United States could quickly find itself spread too thinly to be of much help.
If the Clinton administration is serious about being ready for two conflicts at once, it must be willing to plan and budget for them. Also, it must reconsider which global conflicts to engage forces in and which to leave alone.
Otherwise, the United States could find itself retreating ignominiously in the face of high casualties and inadequate supplies, taking American honor and credibility with it.