September 26, 2006 9:41AM # Military Manpower Problem Solved! By [Ted Galen Carpenter](https://www.cato.org/people/ted-galen-carpenter) --- SHARE Americans who worry that the U.S. military has been stretched to the breaking point to wage the endless war in Iraq and fulfill a vast and growing number of commitments around the world can rest easy. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has found a vast new pool of military personnel–[in *Montenegro*](http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060926/pl_afp/montenegrousmilitary_060926123130;_ylt=AhZKkvmsUlJYRoPCSeSADAWQOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--). Skeptics might point out that Montenegro has a [population of 630,000](https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mj.html#People), and may, therefore, not be much help on the manpower front. But such people are just the chronic defeatists we hear so much about. Admittedly, it might seem a tad humiliating for the secretary of defense of the world’s sole remaining superpower to go, hat in hand, to a tiny country and ask for military assistance. But when said superpower insists on fighting unnecessary and [counterproductive](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092301130.html) wars, it can’t let pride get in the way of seeking aid. With Iraq and Afghanistan both heating up, though, we need more realistic options than to court mini-states as strategic partners. ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).