Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Post-Cold War U.S. Army Personnel Dilemma

Abstract

The U.S. Army of the 1990s is over-employed and under­ resourced. Despite the absence of a major threat, soldiers have spent more nights away from home during the past eight years than in any previous era. The pace of deployments, mostly for support, stability, and peace operations, is wearing out soldiers and their equipment. At the same time, soldiers and their units are witnessing a degradation of their individual and collective combat skills as they play peacekeepers rather than warriors. The Army is working on its problems, but it will need the support of policy makers to achieve lasting effects. Policy makers must learn to "just say no" to questionable deploy­ments or they risk losing the best and brightest young officers and not having a combat-proficient Army the next time they need one.