Ability of the U.S. Military to Sustain an Occupation in Iraq. Statement of Douglas Holtz-Eakin before the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives

摘要

More than 150,000 U.S. military personnel are currently involved in the occupation of Iraq-about 120,000 of them deployed in Iraq itself and the rest supporting the occupation from neighboring countries (primarily Kuwait). This past September, at the request of the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) examined the United States' capability to sustain an occupation force in Iraq over the long term and the associated costs. Douglas Holtz-Eakin's testimony describes the results of that work. In performing its analysis, CBO made no assumptions about how long the occupation might last or about the size of the force that might be necessary. Instead, CBO's work focused on determining how large an occupation the U.S. military could sustain in Iraq indefinitely-while still maintaining acceptable levels of military readiness and not jeopardizing the quality of the all-volunteer force- under various policy options. Those options include using only combat troops from the Army's active component for the occupation, employing other existing U.S. ground forces as well, and expanding current forces to incorporate two additional Army divisions.