6:50AM
The Big War crowd faces yet another adversary...
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 at 6:50AM ...in its long-haul effort to protect the-many-and-the-absurdly-expensive approach to acquisitions
ARTICLE: “Governors Fear National Guard Cut,” by Deborah Solomon, Wall Street Journal, 28 February 2006, p. A8.
Bush is forced to reassure all those governors that Guard units won’t get cut to pay for the big acquisitions still promised in the QDR and current budget submission, “but many remain unconvinced that the federal government will find the money to avoid making painful cuts.”
Ah yes, go short on people and long on big platforms for a Fourth Generation-style Long War. Makes sense to the defense industrial complex, but the govs are having a hard time.
Good for them. I hope it gets harder and harder and harder for them to understand, stomach, and live with.
And I hope they make their voices more known in 06 and 08.
Reader Comments (2)
Tom knows, the governors know, I know: How to Make it Happen?
The 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) preface says, “The QDR is not a programmatic or budget document. Instead, it reflects the thinking of the senior civilian and military leaders of the Department of Defense”.
Analysis of this thinking and of the Committee on Armed Services recent press release shows that neither the committee nor the QDR recommends elimination of any major weapon system. Missile-launching submarines and F-22 and other airplanes are for what enemy? These pentagon planners must be thinking China is our enemy. Does this make sense? China is assembling parts from other mideastern countries to make products that Wal-Mart and others sell to the EU and to the USA. Starbucks, McDonalds, and Cisco operate within China. Some aspects of China are like the USA was during the industrial revolution.
The QDR does make sense here: The Pentagon also will increase the number of psychological operations and civil affairs troops by 3,700 — a 33% increase — in an effort to improve the U.S. military's ability to "win hearts and minds" abroad. This is just now beginning to happen in Iraq. Had this been a part of the plan to invade, Iraq would now have electricity, water, and safety and would be starting to attract foreign investment and would be making products for domestic and foreign sales. This increase in troops that the pentagon plans may be from their analysis of globlization and of thinkers like Thomas PM Barnett, who has presented these ideas to the pentagon.
The Committee on Armed Services may want to find exactly why the expense of big-war weapons is continuing at the rate the QDR planners set. Why do some pentagon planners want these submarines, aircraft carriers, and airplanes? Who is the enemy? In a recent press conference, Rumsfeld said the QDR is a balancing act. Maybe the Committee on Armed Services can find out specifically what enemy this balancing is to deter. If terrorists used a biological weapon to kill people in Baltimore, where is the enemy that these airplanes, carriers, and submarines would bomb?
These boots-on-the-ground troops (33% increase planned) could be the admiinistrators and protectors of miliatary and civilian personel in a rebuilding project here in the USA for practice and then be prepared to do the rebuilding in Iraq or other country. Mark Warner was able to help a failing community in Virginia become a succeding community by helping a software engineer business startup in the failing community. These boots-on-the-ground personnel would now be practicing in rebuilding the Katrina area. This prepares them for the next assignment.
Not sure you meant to say "fourth generation-style long war." That type of war doesn't require big platforms.