Common Ground

The Washington Post today notes that both Barack Obama and John McCain support a key Bush administration national security goal: Increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps.

In addition, both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, Robert Kaiser writes, “have revealed a willingness to commit U.S. forces overseas for both strategic and humanitarian purposes.”

Both agree on a course of action in Afghanistan that could lead to a long-term commitment of American soldiers without a clear statement of how long they might remain or what conditions would lead to their withdrawal.

Both candidates favor expanding the armed forces, Obama by 92,000 and McCain by as many as 150,000. Both speak of situations when the United States might have to commit its troops for "moral" reasons, whether or not a vital American interest was at risk. Both accept what Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army colonel and professor at Boston University, calls the "unspoken consensus which commits the United States to permanent military primacy" -- shared, Bacevich said, by leading figures in both parties.

Could end-strength cuts for ground forces be off the table in next year's Quadrennial Defense Review?