RELUCTANCE TO USE LAND-POWER IN MODERN WARS

AMIT GUPTA explains why President Donald Trump can't Do Boots on the Ground in Iran

- AMIT GUPTA explains why President Donald Trump can't Do Boots on the Ground in Iran

It is very clear that to get a convincing victory in the Iran war, Donald J. Trump will have to put boots on the ground—in large numbers. Critics have pointed out the obvious problems with this: Iran's mountainous terrain makes a land invasion difficult; it is a country of 90 million people; and the Iranians have been planning for this contingency ever since George Walker Bush labelled them as part of the Axis of Evil. But there is another problem. America has neither sufficient ground troops nor the willingness to take sufficient casualties in such a bloody battle. What led to this dilemma, and what are its military consequences?

Background

Wars are part of defining America's national identity. From the American War of Independence to World War II, military conflict has shaped the way America views itself. To this day, the American Civil War has a profound impact on the identity of the American South (Southern States), and those who fought in World War II are referred to as the greatest generation. Yet participating in these wars has not always been the noble exercise that American popular culture makes it out to be.

In the US Civil War, you could pay someone to take your place in the conflict, and many took advantage of this option. Yet, despite such measures, over 650,000 Americans died in the conflict.

The US was a late entrant into World War I and never fully mobilised the country's available manpower. After the war, the US Army was rapidly demobilised, and force levels were deliberately kept low.