A Total Army for Total War (Synopsis)
January 1999
The National Guard's combat divisions have few missions in America's military planning. This disregard for the possibility that the Army may need to fight an enemy willing to challenge American interests on a major scale is disturbing. The National Defense Panel, assuming in error that nobody can challenge America conventionally, proposes weakening today's military to free resources to exploit the Revolution in Military Affairs. We must equip and train the Army National Guard (ARNG) as our nation's sole mobilization asset in case the unthinkable happens and the United States finds itself confronted with a large-scale ground war.
The United States officially has the ability to fight two major theater wars (MTWs) nearly simultaneously. A General Accounting Office (GAO) report noted that much of the Army National Guard's combat strength had no defined role in fighting a MTW, operations other than war, or any probable combat scenario. The Army has adopted a reorganization for the ARNG that forms support units at the expense of combat units. The GAO expressed reservations that even this reorganization eliminated "excess" Guard combat forces.
While a peer competitor is not anticipated in the near term, reserves capable of fighting a larger-than-MTW threat must be maintained. We can at least take a step to bridging the gap between a MTW and a large-scale war by preparing our ARNG divisions for a difficult ground war. The ARNG is needed in a combat role because the United States "cannot achieve the flexibility and interoperability we need for the full range of military operations without a seamless Total Force." Training and equipping the Guard for a major combat role may also provide a needed warfighting focus for the Total Army.
A division of labor that relies on the active Army for MTWs and prepares the ARNG for large wars recognizes that the active Army needs the Guard to defeat a major enemy and accepts that ARNG divisions cannot be ready to go to war on short notice. By recognizing the Guard's vital role in warfighting, we can create a seamless Total Army that dominates the full spectrum of conflict. If we fail to do this, we may find ourselves on the losing end of a future war.