The Incredible Shrinking Invasion Force

Retired generals Scales and McCaffrey were on NPR discussing Robert Gates.

I like Scales. I respect McCaffrey for his role as division commander of 24th ID in 1991, but in 2003 he was prone to predicting disaster on the march up to Baghdad at every pause it seems. That lessens my respect for his analytical skills but I do respect him on the whole.

Still, he said something that just ticks me off. It is common for critics of the invasion to say we did it with too few troops. It is often said--incorrectly--that we invaded with only three divisions. I've refuted this enough to be too tired to look for a link. Suffice it to say, we invaded with the equivalent of nearly three Army divisions (28 battalions of line units), over three divisions of Marines (32 battalions of line units), and a British division (10 battalions of line units). That's seven divisions and well in line with our thinking about what it would take to win a Major Theater War.

But today, McCaffrey improves upon the "three-division" invasion myth. He said we invaded Iraq with one division of Marines and 1-1/2 divisions of Army troops.

In another decade, the invasion will be down to Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and eight guys with suspicously Jewish-sounding names.

Debate what it takes to win but for goodness sake, don't start out with incorrect assumptions.