Grounded: The case for abolishing the United States Air Force, by Robert Farley

Abstract

Robert Farley Grounded: The Case for Abolishing United States Air Force Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2014. 272 pp., $26.95 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-8131-4495-5The future of US military may be in Canada's past, contends Robert Farley, who is assistant professor at Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at University of Kentucky. In his recent book, Grounded: The Case for Abolishing United States Air Force, Farley argues that an independent air force has a negative impact on US defence and security. Every branch of military has its own parochial interests, but those of US Air Force (USAF) are damaging because they are antiClausewitzian, meaning that they are likely to ignore: (1) fog of war; (2) need to disarm enemy; and (3) fact that politics always supersedes military action.According to Farley, idea of airpower as a strategic fix has helped legitimize USAF as a stand-alone service while perpetuating myth that almost any political objective can be achieved by right application of force from above. Put differently, if airpower itself makes US stronger, then appropriation of (strategic) airpower by USAF detracts from this strength by distorting proper understanding of warfare. As author notes, list of those who bought into the promise that airpower can deliver quick, cheap, decisive victories (2) is long and not exclusively American; it begins with Winston Churchill and ends, for now, with Bill Clinton and most other NATO leaders during 1999 Kosovo war (43) or, indeed, with Israeli policymakers in charge of campaigns against Hezbollah in 2006 and Hamas in 2009 and 2014.Farley discusses other reasons why it would be rational for US Army and Navy to swallow up USAF's missions and assets, but Clausewitzian theory is main one. Searching for a more rational design of military institutions, he examines both Soviet and Israeli experience, but finds promise in path blazed by Canadian defence minister Paul Hellyer half a century ago that saw unification of Canada's tri-service structure. The author's policy recommendation comes in full awareness of great Canadian military reform's failures (174-179) and of fact that USAF stands no chance of actually being abolished in future, barring some unpleasant black swan event (184-187).Farley loves to provoke and polemicize, but his is not a book like Thomas P. …