Generic discussion of U.S. troop deployment challenges in CENTCOM region

with an immediate rolling and flowing start. The United States will have to work from smaller troop footprints and be prepared to start fighting even as follow- on-forces are on the way. Ideally, these forces would flow from multiple staging positions to reduce vulnerability to nuclear attack. The politics of the region, however, will work against securing a multitude of staging areas from which to deploy. The region under the purview of Centcom has always been riddled with political violence that has posed formidable challenges to military operations. But in plotting a course over the horizon, the political and military obstacles for American military surges into the region are poised to grow even larger. As a result, theater contingency planners will have fewer good options for projecting American military power into the region -- and they'll have to do more with the bad and the ugly. Richard L. Russell is Professor of National Security Affairs at the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029813