Pentagon to abandon two-war doctrine

The Pentagon is to abandon its longstanding doctrine of always being ready to fight two simultaneous conventional wars. Instead, the focus will shift to a broader range of challenges including terrorism and cyber-security, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. “We have learned through painful experience that the wars we fight are seldom the wars that we planned,” Mr. Gates said on February 1, as he presented the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review and the 2011 budget plan to the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We have, in a sober and clear-eyed way, assessed risk, set priorities, made trade-offs and identified requirements based on plausible real-world threats, scenarios and potential adversaries,” he said, making his boldest call yet for reform of a military force that dwarfs the rest of the world’s.

Warning that U.S. military power faced new limits and constraints, Secretary Gates said that weaponry, tactics and enemies had overtaken the “familiar contingencies that dominated U.S. planning after the Cold War.” The sweeping review of U.S. military strategy must prepare for an “uncertain security landscape” where extremists or “non-state actors” seek missile technology or weapons of mass destruction.

Attempting to allay fears that the abandonment of the two-war doctrine would be too radical, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said planning for future major conflicts with conventional weaponry remained central to the Pentagon’s portfolio. Gates said the military should focus on winning current conflicts, not assumed future ones, and called for more investment in aerial drones, helicopters and special operations forces which, he said, have proved vital in the Afghan war.

The Obama administration is seeking $741 billion in defense spending for 2011, including $75 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Gates underlined his determination to stop the construction of C-17 transport planes because the Air Force had a sufficient quantity, and of an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Last year Congress saved both projects in approving the defense budget. This year Gates pledged to ask President Barack Obama to veto any bill that still included them.

In a surprise move, Gates removed the general in charge of the Joint Strike Fighter program, the department’s largest, and withheld $240 million from the contractor Lockheed Martin after a review warned that the project was going billions over budget.

The Defense Review also made clear that NATO and old allies such as Britain remained as important as ever to U.S. thinking, given the greater need for intelligence sharing in a more complex global environment. It also called for more resources and expertise for dealing with failed states such as Somalia and supporting fragile states such as Yemen, which are ripe for terrorism.

For the first time, the Pentagon identified global warming as a potential trigger of instability and urged the military to renew efforts to reduce its dependence on oil.

– edited from The Telegraph (U.K.), February 2, 2010
PeaceMeal, Jan/February 2010

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

Many young Americans unfit for military

Chalk up another national-security threat — this one looming with each excess pound, failing grade and drug bust affecting young adults. An alarming 75 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 would not qualify for military service today because they are physically unfit, failed to finish high school or have criminal records. So says a new report from an organization of education and military leaders called Mission: Readiness. The report titled “Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve” was endorsed by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark.

Military recruiters in Kansas City report turning away prospective recruits “in every office, every hour, every day” for reasons including girths too large and credit ratings too low. Increasingly, applicants are disqualified for having asthma or for taking pills for depression or attention disorders. Nearly one-third of all young adults have health issues other than weight that could keep them from serving, according to the report.

As a slumping economy increases interest in military service, more people with obvious deficiencies are contacting recruiters. Some applicants without a high-school diploma can get a waiver to serve if they earn a GED or score high on the military's entrance exam. But such waivers are granted to fewer than 2 percent of applicants. The military doesn’t want recruits who will be hounded by creditors and lawsuits. So, if you’re carrying too much debt, you’re out. Even after signing up, 7 to 15 percent of enlistees return home for not meeting all that basic training demands.

– edited from McClatchy News Service, 13 November 2009
PeaceMeal, Nov/December 2009

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)