by Andrew BEATTY
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Like many patriotic, flag-pin wearing American politicians before him, President Barack Obama told US military personnel on Thursday that they are part of “the greatest military in the history of the world.”
We asked military historians whether his common refrain is true, and if it matters:
“It matters a great deal to the cadets and officers and their families and the veterans we honored Monday (on Memorial Day). It also matters for future recruitment and for the president’s legacy. It’s rhetoric, but that does not make it unimportant. No president wants to be thought of as having left the armed forces worse off when they left office.”
– Lee Brice, professor of history at Western Illinois University.
“It is probably true that the United States military, by fighting spirit, by organization, by logistical support, by technology, by weapons, is dramatically better than any military it’s likely to fight. Maybe the right measure is how much American dominance has forced adaptation by our adversaries. Nobody believes they can beat the American military in the center of the combat spectrum — it drives the resort to terror tactics, it drives the resort to insurgency.”
“But the obvious weak point is not internal to our military, it’s our political will to use it. That’s the weak point that advisories are going for, to make obsolete our military advantage. Whenever I hear people talk so proudly about the finest military, I feel like it’s a danger sign. If you have to say that to yourself, it is, in my judgment, masking an insecurity about your ability to achieve your objectives.”
– Kori Schake, research fellow at the Hoover Institution.
“If it’s pardonable exaggeration for the president to call the US military the greatest fighting force in history, it is not an exaggeration by much. No one military can excel at everything and historians will debate the relative merits of militaries ranging from the Romans to the Russians. Still, the US military is one of the greatest fighting forces in history, due to its record, its training, its leadership, its technology, its professionalism and its patriotism. It is also one of history’s great meritocratic and democratic armies. President Obama has every reason to praise the US military to the skies.”
– Barry Strauss, history department chair at Cornell University.
“There can be no doubt about its power -– by comparison with its rivals and indeed its allies –- and its technical proficiency would appear to be unrivalled, and on a par with the Roman Army and the Turkish Army — both very similar in their engineering skills and machine-like efficiency. But the US is not interested in conquest for its own sake -– and that is probably the most striking feature of the US armed forces, and one of which Americans should be proud.”
– Brian Holden Reid, professor of American history and military institutions at King’s College London.
“These comparisons are very difficult across time and space. But I would say the US military in 1944/45 gets the all-time laurels.”
– Barry Posen, professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Advancing technology queers the pitch, making exact comparisons difficult. What is clear is that the US military — all services — are operating at an exceedingly professional, superior level. We are aided by big military budgets, of course, but these are choices all powers make, or don’t, and, naturally, ours comes at a price in terms of our nation’s fiscal condition and ability to respond to future crises.
– Geoffrey Wawro, professor of history and director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas.
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