Compass Points - Dept of Zoom Calls?
Withdraw US forces from around the world?
Compass Points - Dept of Zoom Calls?
Withdraw US forces from around the world?
June 30, 2025
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Some reports indicate that the US Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Defense have discussed renaming the US Department of Defense, and calling it, once again, the US War Department.
Others seem to be almost suggesting the Defense Department be called something very different, like the Department of Zoom Calls.
The impact of Operation Midnight Hammer, the successful US strike on Iran's nuclear sites, continues to reverberate around the world. No doubt other nations hostile to the US are considering whether they want to be the next target for a strike from the US B-2 Spirit stealth bombers.
As powerful as the B-2 bomber is, it is only one tool in the US arsenal and one part of US worldwide defense.
Unfortunately, some defense reporters are drawing the wrong conclusion from Operation Midnight Hammer. Some reporters are saying, now that the worldwide power of the B-2 has been proven, the US can withdraw from its bases and stations. Can the US really withdraw from bases and stations in the Middle East and presumably all around the world and conduct global defense using just text messages, Zoom calls, and an occasional B-2 strike?
Writing in the Washington Post, Dan Caldwell and Jennifer Kavanagh argue that, "The Iran Strike Shows We Don’t Need Bases In The Middle East."
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On June 21, B-2 bombers launched from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri flew 37 hours round trip to attack Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow and Natanz, while 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from a submarine in the Persian Gulf at Natanz and Isfahan. These strikes were supported by dozens of aerial refuelers, reconnaissance aircraft and fighter jets that escorted the bombers into Iran. Look closely, and you’ll notice something peculiar: Many of the aircraft involved in the operation do not appear to have taken off from the large U.S. air bases in the Middle East — or, if they did, that fact has been carefully concealed.
. . . When the president decided it was time for the United States to act against Iran, the 40,000 troops and billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware that Washington keeps parked in the Middle East were of limited use. Worse, these forces ultimately proved to be a vulnerability when, 36 hours later, Iran retaliated by launching missiles at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
. . . The “12 Day War” fortunately did not cost any American lives, but it highlighted our vulnerabilities in the region and underlined how our existing force posture was superfluous to achieving our aims. The war’s end provides an opportunity for the United States to do what it has tried and failed to do for the better part of a decade: rationalize and downscale its presence in the Middle East. We should not miss this opportunity to act.
-- Dan Caldwell and Jennifer Kavanagh, "The Iran Strike Shows We Don’t Need Bases In The Middle East." Washington Post
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Are the authors correct that the B-2 strike is an opportunity for the US to withdraw from its bases in the Middle East and around the world because, "Our massive gulf footprint is more liability than asset"?
The authors are only looking at the cost of US forward deployed forces and not at the gains. What the US and the world gains through forward deployed US forces is bad actors are deterred and peaceful days are multiplied.
It is true that US forces around the world on bases and stations, in aircraft in the air, and on ships at sea, all these forces are expensive and all of them at different times are in danger. Bases are in danger. Aircraft are in danger. Ships are in danger. Projecting US military power around the globe is expensive and dangerous. Danger and expense are indispensable aspects of maintain peace around the world. Danger and expense are not flaws in US worldwide defense, danger and expense are features.
For more than a century, US forces have played a crucial role in maintaining peace around the world. In peacetime, US forces around the world deter bad actors. In war, US forces around the world fight to regain world peace. The key to world peace is a powerful US military deployed around the world and a network of allies in every corner of the globe.
To maintain our allies, it is not enough to say we have amazing B-2 stealth bombers sitting in Missouri. Allies must see the US forces patrolling in their region, flying in their skies, sailing their oceans, and conducting joint and combined military exercises on their territory. When there is a natural disaster, allies want to see the US military arrive. It gives allies reassurance. It draws them closer to the US. If the US is there for them when they are attacked by a typhoon, they correctly figure the US will be there for them when they are attacked by a hostile military force.
Abandon US positions in the US and around the world? The Washington Post writers must have been watching the old classic movie about the US Marine Corps, A Few Good Men.
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Bob, get the President on the line. Tell him we're abandoning our position . . .
-- Col. Nathan Jessup. A Few Good Men
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Abandon our positions? No. The success of Operation Midnight Hammer does not provide good reason for the US to withdraw from its bases and stations in the Middle East or around the world. Just the opposite. The more dangerous the world is, the more US forces need to be forward deployed on bases and stations, in the air and on the seas. It is not enough to withdraw to Missouri and stay in contact with US allies solely through text messages and Zoom calls. The Department of Defense may change its name to War Department but it can never change its name to Department of Zoom Calls.
Every US military service makes a special contribution to National defense. The Marine Corps’ primary contribution is the MAGTF. The Marine Air Ground Task Force provides rapid and overwhelming response to any global crisis. In a dangerous world, the MAGTF is the Nation’s 9-1-1 force. While the need for a fully capable MAGTF is greater today than ever, it is strange that in recent years the Marine Corps itself has taken its focus off the MAGTF and focused instead on small units of Marines on islands in the Pacific. What is the future of the MAGTF? Can it still be the powerful, flexible, crisis response force it was created to be? General Krulak and General Zinni believe the MAGTF is more important today than ever.
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The crown jewel of the Marine Corps has been the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF), including the small sized MEU, the medium MEB, and the full sized MEF. The MAGTF was built to act as a balanced combined arms team, easily tailored for any crisis or contingency. The close integration of the diverse elements gives the MAGTF a unique synergy and flexibility not found in rigid, fixed organizations.
We have seen recent senior Marine Corps leaders unwisely degrade this critical national security treasure in pursuit of the so called “pacing threat.” They purposely gutted the MAGTF’s balanced organization and its expeditionary and rapid deployment capabilities. The rush to divest the MAGTF of needed and proven capabilities has created a dangerous void in our Nation’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to global crises and contingencies as recent events demonstrate. The Marine Corps and the Navy must rebuild and rebalance the crisis response force it once had.
Those who were part of developing the MAGTF, witnessed the evolution of a unique combined arms force ideally suited for deterrence and global crisis response. Despite external pressures to “purpose design” the Corps or focus on one threat or region, these leaders opted for a unique global orientation and a flexible and scalable structure geared to be highly ready, quickly deployable, responsive, and effective across the spectrum of conflict. This was the nation’s 9-1-1 force. The key to such a force was then and continues to be maintaining a balanced air-ground-logistics team.
-- Charles C. Krulak and Anthony C. Zinni, "Restore the MAGTF"
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Compass Points thanks General Krulak and General Zinni for their continuing efforts to rebuild and enhance the Marine MAGTF, the Nation's global, combined arms, 9-1-1 force. Now, is not the time to abandon our positions. Instead, now is the time to put more Marine MAGTFs on the oceans of a dangerous world.
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Washington Post - 06/28/2025
The Iran Strike Shows We Don’t Need Bases In The Middle East
Our massive gulf footprint is more liability than asset.
Dan Caldwell and Jennifer Kavanagh
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/28/iran-strike-american-military-vulnerability/
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Compass Points – Restore the MAGTF
Time to upgrade and rebalance.
November 14, 2024
marinecorpscompasspoints.substack.com/p/compass-points-restore-the-magtf
Withdraw globally? T.R. Fehrenbach in his classic "This Kind of War" wrote "... you may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it; pulverize it and wipe it clean of life - but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman Legions did, by putting your young men into the mud."
The global reach of US Airpower and Submarines is not new. B-52’s had a global reach since the 1950’s. While the value of this global capability is remarkable it cannot be the foundation of protecting US vital interests anymore that a sniper can be the sole factor on the battlefield.
The global web of military bases, airfields and ports is more critical today than ever and our withdrawal from many beginning in 1990 was a strategic mistake of biblical proportions. Where exactly these should be is debatable but the need cannot be dismissed but by the most historically ignorant and those with no understanding of alliances and human nature. Presence matters in Global politics, law enforcement and human interaction.
We are a nation dependent on trade and global stability. Forward deployed forces are required if for no other reason than the tyranny of distance, our lack of strategic mobility and to signal commitment and ability to interact and coordinate with allied militaries.
I will go one step further and would encourage the home basing of a number of allied warships in US Ports while we base a limited number of US warships in foreign ports.
Our isolationist tendencies are a fantasy of those who neither understand vital US interests, the foundations of US prosperity and our military capabilities.
Deployed MAGTFs are the living embodiment of US commitment, intentions and capabilities. They should not be reduced but expanded. I have suggested four continually deployed MEUs for decades. Ideally there would be six.