The military's peacekeeping and humanitarian activities have expanded greatly, according to a Pentagon review likely to raise new concerns among Republican lawmakers about U.S. combat readiness.
Since January 1992, U.S. military forces have been involved in one combat operation in Somalia and 15 humanitarian operations, according to a senior military officer who briefed reporters Wednesday on the study done for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The humanitarian operations include Hurricane Andrew; the Los Angeles earthquake; and providing aid to refugees in Bosnia, Rwanda and Somalia.From the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 until January 1992 - when the last such study was done - the officer cited three combat operations - including the invasions of Panama and Kuwait - and four humanitarian missions. A complete description of all the missions cited by the officer wasn't available.
The new study "found an unprecedented period of activity for the armed forces - a number of humanitarian operations, some preventive or deterrent deployments, a combat operation in Somalia," said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We recognized that we had to come to terms with the expansion of peacekeeping," said the officer, who said new military doctrine and education has been developed to help the military cope with the change.
Asked about the inherent tension in being able to conduct humanitarian missions, yet maintain a ready force to fight and win the nation's wars, the officer replied, "The tension can be overstated."
Many in the new Republican majority in Congress have criticized the Clinton administration for embroiling the military too deeply in humanitarian operations, accusing the administration of hurting troops' ability to conduct military operations.
Whether the Pentagon can fight and win two major regional conflicts with its pared-down force structure of 1.4 million troops is also a bone of contention between some on Capitol Hill and administration officials, who say they have not pared the force too severely.