White Noise Insanity

The white house and Pentagon are finally talking about raising the numbers of people in uniform which would alleviate the burden on those who are serving now. But it is NOT just raw numbers they need.

Growing the Army if NOT done with some forethought will create as big a Fiasco as going into Iraq without a plan already has. We need to ask ourselves what we need in a 21st military before the Pentagon goes to congress for an authorization to increase end strength. The size of US forces is set by congress based on advice of the Pentagon and requests by the Commander in Chief. Since the end of the first gulf war, the military has been downsized, first because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which meant we no longer needed large mechanized Infantry and Armor Units to fight the Soviet Union on the plains of Germany and Eastern Europe.

Desert Storm was that type of war, as was the Invasion of Iraq in 2003, we have enough troops to fight that style of war. There is NO foreign military which could stand toe to toe with the US in that style of combat EVEN today.

But since the Victory of 1991, the US has been embroiled in a number of military excursions which requires a new approach. Somolia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since April 2003 shows the extreme limits on the military structure we have.

We do NOT have any where near enough Military Police units. That is what is severely lacking in Iraq. Units trained in the art of policing captured territory, providing security for both the US supply routes and civilians who have become the wards of US troops after we occupied their homeland. Soldiers who know how to man a check point, have training in the arts of policing civilians and can run security operations as their primary purpose, infantry units are NOT trained for this mission and should NOT be.

Secondly we need more Engineer troops in the forces, if we are going to continue with operations like Bosnia and Iraq post invasion. Engineers are the construction forces of the Military. They would have been very advantageous in the early days of the occupation because they could have repaired the broken infrastructure, which would have provided electricity and water to the people, which would have provided some good will on their part. This could have been used to create a much friendlier environment with many Iraqi civilians, then the hard handed arrest them all and sort it out months later approach Dumsfeld used.

Third we need a large increase in civil affairs units. These are the units which go into the civilian areas and ask ther local population what THEY need, and then work with Military Police units for security and Engineer units for repair and reconstruction to provide it. The Civil Affairs also coordinate medical units to provide medical services until Hospitals can be repaired and re-established, and is who the Military turns to to repair schools and get the children back into the classrooms.

Another Thing that is required is a new type of command for any occupation force. The military needs a professional command structure which does what the CPA incompetently tried to do. It would be the General which had control over the MP's Engineers and Civil Affairs, and other units which would be required to restore the civilian social structure to something which a civilian government could take the reigns of power and allow the US forces to re-deploy back to the US. But something like a Military CPA would have to leave the political cronyism and hackery in DC and allow professional people who trained for the job to take the reigns and preform the mission.

Structuring the Military growth in this manner would be adding units which are staffed to win the hearts and minds of the people once the "War Fighters" have won the battle. They are built to operate in a manner which has the possibility to provide for the improvement of the lives if civilians right after the cessation of major combat operations, and stand up the civilian authorities to take back civilian control. However Halliburton would not be employed if the military had these units available, because the military would be doing the same job which Dumsfeld contracted Halliburton to do, but at a MUCH lower cost, and they would nave the ability to hold the commanders accountable. This is a good thing, both to the taxpayers who would have to shell out less money, and to the civilians in the theater of operations which would actually see the job done.

As an aside this restructuring of the Military in this manner would also provide the civilians of the US some direct benefits. If the Military had these units available pre-katrina, the outcome of that disaster might have been completely different. There would have been units ready to go on Day one NOT day five, and a brigade of Engineers could have cleared and repairs roads much sooner. The MPs would have been available for rescue and recovery operations much sooner, and been able to move into the Superdome and convention center both to restore order, and aid in the evacuation days before Gen Honore was sent in.

Will this be what Bush and Gates settles on, probably NOT. It does not provide for large new contracts for the defense industries. It is NOT what the neo-cons want because the missions are not attack attack attack, but provide services to people which dearly need them. It goes against the grain of the reicht wingnut mantra of blame those the are suffering because of policies enacted by the incompetent president and repugnant party. Policies which enrich a few, and cause death destruction and suffering on a massive scale in both this country and around the world.

When Bush and Gates set out to grow the military, they probably will work to add "war fighters" not peace winners. Because they are all about fighting a war, not winning the peace. The units I suggest to add are what the military relies on to win the peace after the initial battle has been won, but the war is far from settled, just as has happened in Iraq. The M-1 tanks can take the ground but do little for the people once they do. Right now the US needs more units that can assist the people of this planet and less that are formed to kill them.