Global Posture Review whiffs (in secret)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 29, 2021
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the Pentagon announced the completion of its Global Posture Review, which was meant to assess the U.S. military footprint worldwide. Defense Priorities Policy Director Benjamin H. Friedman issued the following statement in response:

“The Global Posture Review arrived at last today, sort of, with a whimper. The Pentagon declared the review complete, but classified, and issued a short press release heralding its achievements, which appear to be none. The review, anonymous officials tell us, basically decided that the basing status quo is good. The Pentagon effectively patted itself on the shoulder in secret and told taxpayers ‘trust us; all is well.’ It isn’t.

“U.S. force posture is a servant of a wasteful strategy that sees U.S. garrisons as magical solutions to problems they don’t solve, and that U.S. foreign policy could safely ignore in most cases. We could be secure with far fewer bases in the Middle East, Europe, and even Asia. More U.S. forces and basing near China are not going to slow Beijing’s rise as a great power and are unnecessary to defend major allies there, who are rich and defensible. Even without changing strategy, the review might have recommended reductions in basing on the grounds that long-range precision weapons have made overseas bases both more vulnerable and less necessary to strike enemies. No such luck.

“It could have been worse. Pentagon review documents typically gush strategic-sounding piffle, exhausting readers with laborious defenses of the status quo. This one at least spared us that.”