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SSG Rock
11-08-2006, 05:53 PM
Listening to the radio at work. Breaking news.

Rumsfeld is resigning, just announced and Bush will be speaking on the topic shortly.

Thats all I know.

UCrawford
11-08-2006, 06:05 PM
Fox News has it in their headline, but no details. The Pentagon isn't saying anything. Good call on your part if it's true.

UCrawford
11-08-2006, 06:06 PM
According to CNN, he's being replaced by Robert Gates, the ex-CIA director, which wouldn't be a bad call at all.

SWJED
11-08-2006, 06:11 PM
Quicklook at what the President's said (press conference):


... Election has changed many things but not Bush's responsibility to protect the United States. Secretary Rumsfeld and President have decided it is time for new leadership at the Pentagon and a fresh perspective on the war. Has asked Bob Gates (former Director, CIA) to be the new SECDEF.... Gates is currently serving as a member of the Iraq Study Group. President will have more to say later today on Rumsfeld and Gates...

On the elections, to our enemies, do not mistake the election results as a change in our resolve. To the people of Iraq do not be fearful, America will stand by you. To our service men and women, we will always support you...

Uboat509
11-08-2006, 06:16 PM
Anybody familiar with Bob Gates?

SFC W

Steve Blair
11-08-2006, 06:24 PM
Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates) is the Wiki entry on him.

If he turned down DNI, I wonder if he'd really be interested in SECDEF? Seems like it would be a worse gig from that standpoint.

Although this (http://www.tamu.edu/home/spotlight/gatesmessage.html) might be a good enough reason for him to leave A&M.

SWJED
11-08-2006, 06:27 PM
Here is the Wikipedia entry on Bob Gates:


Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence official. He served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council. Under President George H.W. Bush Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence. After leaving the CIA, Gates wrote his memoirs and became president of Texas A&M University, serving on several corporate boards.

President George W. Bush announced on November 8, 2006, the day after the 2006 midterm elections, that he would nominate Gates to succeed the resigning Donald Rumsfeld as U.S. Secretary of Defense. The Senate must confirm this nomination for Gates to become Secretary.

Childhood and education

A native of Wichita, Kansas, Gates attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and is a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He graduated from Wichita East High School in 1961. Gates received his bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary in 1965, his master's degree in history from Indiana University in 1966, and his Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University in 1974.

Intelligence career

While at Indiana University, Gates was recruited to join the Central Intelligence Agency. But before joining the CIA full-time as an intelligence analyst, he spent two years in the Air Force; one job was giving intelligence briefings to ICBM missile crews at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. (The CIA offered no escape from the draft during the Vietnam War.).

Gates left the CIA in 1974 to serve on the National Security Council staff but returned to the CIA in late 1979. He was named the Director of the DCI/DDCI Executive Staff in 1981, Deputy Director for Intelligence in 1982, and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from April 18, 1986, to March 20, 1989. In early 1987 he was nominated to become the Director of Central Intelligence in early 1987, but withdrew after it became clear that the Senate would reject the nomination because of controversy about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

Gates was Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from March until August of 1989, and was Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser from August 1989 until November 1991. He was nominated (for the second time) for the position of Director of Central Intelligence by President Bush on May 14, 1991, confirmed by the Senate on November 5, and sworn in on November 6, becoming the only career officer in the CIA's history (as of 2005) to rise from entry-level employee to Director. Deputy Directors during his tenure were Richard J. Kerr (from November 6, 1991, until March 2, 1992) and Adm. William O. Studeman (from April 9, 1992, through the remainder of Dr. Gates’ tenure).

During his 26-year career as an intelligence professional, he spent almost nine years on the National Security Council, serving four Presidents of both major political parties.

In 1996, his memoirs were published under the title From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War.

Gates has been highly decorated for his service: he was the recipient of the National Security Medal and the Presidential Citizens Medal, was twice awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and three times received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

Career after leaving the CIA

Gates became the 22nd President of Texas A&M University on August 1, 2002 following a tenure as Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M from 1999 to 2001. He has served as a member of the board of trustees of Fidelity Investments, and on the board of directors of NACCO Industries, Inc., Brinker International, Inc. and Parker Drilling Company, Inc. He also served as President of the National Eagle Scout Association during the mid-2000s.

Director of National Intelligence Offer

In February 2005, Gates wrote in a message posted on his school's website that "There seems to be a growing number of rumors in the media and around campus that I am leaving Texas A&M to become the new director of national intelligence ('Intelligence Czar') in Washington, D.C." The message said that "To put the rumors to rest, I was indeed asked to take the position, wrestled with perhaps the most difficult -- and close -- decision of my life, and last week declined the position."

Gates committed to remain as President of Texas A&M University through the summer of 2007; President George W. Bush offered the position of United States Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to John Negroponte, who accepted.

Gates said in a 2005 discussion with the university's Academy for Future International Leaders that he had tentatively decided to accept the DNI position out of a sense of duty and had written an email that would be sent to students during the press conference to announce his decision, explaining that he was leaving to serve the U.S. once again. Gates, however, took the weekend to consider what his final decision should be, and ultimately decided that he was unwilling to return to Washington, D.C. in any capacity simply because he "had nothing to look forward to in D.C. and plenty to look forward to at A&M."

Secretary of Defense

On November 8, 2006 George W. Bush nominated Robert Gates to serve as Secretary of Defense in the wake of Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. Robert Gates will now face confirmation in the Senate.

jcustis
11-08-2006, 06:54 PM
I'm perplexed about what the Gates appointment gives us. Sure, it may be a "fresh perspective", but unless he continued to be read in during his time at A&M, is he current on the strategic, operational, and tactical situation in Iraq/Afghanistan.

Remember, there are two open fronts in the GWOT. How long is it going to take a guy to get up to speed, and can he do it in a manner that makes his perspective relative?

SWJED
11-08-2006, 07:01 PM
... as he is a member of the Iraq Study Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Study_Group).


The Iraq Study Group (ISG), also known as the Baker commission, is a US government sanctioned task force charged to deliver an independent assessment, known as the Iraq Study Group Report, of the situation in Iraq in the US led Iraq War. The United States Congress announced the formation of the group on March 15, 2006, facilitated by U.S. Institute of Peace and supported by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Center for the Study of the Presidency (CSP), and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

The ISG is led by co-chairs James Baker and Lee Hamilton, and will be composed of five Republicans and five Democrats, including:

Sandra Day O'Connor, former Supreme Court Justice
Robert M. Gates, former Director of Central Intelligence
Edwin Meese III, former US Attorney General
Vernon Jordan, Jr., business executive
Leon E. Panetta, former White House Chief of Staff
William J. Perry, former US Secretary of Defense
Charles S. Robb, former Governor and Senator of Virginia
Alan K. Simpson, former Wyoming Senator

Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani was originally a member but resigned on May 24, 2006, stating in a letter to co-chair Baker "my previous time commitments do not permit me the full and active participation that the Iraq Study Group deserves." He was soon replaced by Edwin Meese III.

UCrawford
11-08-2006, 07:02 PM
True, Gates has apparently been out of circulation for awhile, but I think that this may be a situation in which a weaker Secretary of Defense isn't going to be so problematic. It seemed the major issue with Rumsfeld that continually came up was he was very dismissive of the military's advice or needs, heeding only his own opinion. Assuming Gates doesn't pursue a similar management style ("My way or the highway") it may be more productive to have a SECDEF who is more deferential to the generals in a time of war. To be honest, the military commanders have a better education in warfighting than pretty much any SECDEF appointee ever would and if Gates realizes that maybe the military advice that gets to the President won't be as watered down as it reportedly has been.

Good leadership isn't always about having all the answers yourself...it's about realizing what the best choices are when they're presented to you.

UCrawford
11-08-2006, 07:03 PM
I posted my last as SWJED posted his. Sounds like Gates is a great choice then. The only guy I would have like better would have been James Baker (although that's just my own opinion).

Steve Blair
11-08-2006, 07:05 PM
Gates would be considered "clean" by many simply because he has been out of politics (at least in the conventional sense) for a time. I'd assume he remained "read in" to a degree, since those folks tend to remain tied in. Gates was also career intel, not a typical political appointee to the DCI position, so they may be assuming that he'll bring a more informed view of GWOT to the table.

jcustis
11-08-2006, 07:06 PM
True, Gates has apparently been out of circulation for awhile, but I think that this may be a situation in which a weaker Secretary of Defense isn't going to be so problematic. It seemed the major issue with Rumsfeld that continually came up was he was very dismissive of the military's advice or needs, heeding only his own opinion. Assuming Gates doesn't pursue a similar management style ("My way or the highway") it may be more productive to have a SECDEF who is more deferential to the generals in a time of war. To be honest, the military commanders have a better education in warfighting than pretty much any SECDEF appointee ever would and if Gates realizes that maybe the military advice that gets to the President won't be as watered down as it reportedly has been.

Good leadership isn't always about having all the answers yourself...it's about realizing what the best choices are when they're presented to you.

A very good observation UCrawford. I guess even I have been so conditioned that I didn't think of those possibilities.

SSG Rock
11-08-2006, 07:36 PM
It will be telling how smoothly the confirmation process goes. Should tell us alot about how serious all of this talk of bipartisanship from Pelosi and Bush is.

Steve Blair
11-08-2006, 07:44 PM
It will be telling how smoothly the confirmation process goes. Should tell us alot about how serious all of this talk of bipartisanship from Pelosi and Bush is.

It will be as serious, I'll bet, as such talk usually is. Bipartisanship usually means YOU work with US and nothing else.:eek:

Been there, heard that line before.:rolleyes:

UCrawford
11-08-2006, 07:57 PM
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Gates' confirmation went through relatively quickly. They need to get someone in place, Gates is more tied to the first Bush's presidency than this one, no major baggage, and he's got a decent track record. I would think that the last thing the Democrats would want to do would be to look like they're being unsupportive of the troops in a time of war and tying the SECDEF up in a lengthy confirmation would do just that because it would be seen as a distractor. Plus, I think that Rumsfeld's personality had a lot to do with his problems with Congress. He was reportedly hostile to them from the beginning.

UCrawford
11-08-2006, 08:02 PM
Also, maybe the Democrats will consider Bush's immediate reversal of his recent support for Rumsfeld punishment enough for now. Getting rid of Rumsfeld, regardless of how unpopular he was, was a big concession for Bush. The SECDEF was the focal point of a lot of the conflicts between Bush and the Dems and whether it's been a good trait or not, Bush has deservedly earned a reputation for being extremely loyal to those perceived as loyal to him. I think that firing Rumsfeld was not something he wanted to do at all...it was a concession to the election.

SSG Rock
11-08-2006, 08:22 PM
I hope your right UCrawford. For the sake of the troops. Lets hope that the polticians still remember that we have our finest overseas trying to do a job that THEY sent them to do.

slapout9
11-08-2006, 08:26 PM
Sgt. Rock, just in case Gates dosen't work out...ahhh do you have any major plans for the next two years???

UCrawford
11-08-2006, 08:34 PM
I hope your right UCrawford. For the sake of the troops. Lets hope that the polticians still remember that we have our finest overseas trying to do a job that THEY sent them to do.

I hope so too. Nothing would make me happier than to see things get back on track so our guys can do their jobs.

SWJED
11-08-2006, 08:44 PM
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld


Bush Replaces Rumsfeld After Republican Defeat (http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-08-voa58.cfm) - Voice of America
Bush, Rumsfeld Agree: ‘Timing Right for New Leadership at Pentagon’ (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=2058) - AFPS
Rumsfeld to Step Down as Defense Secretary (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110801180.html) - Washington Post
Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09BUSHCND.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=90b2a0d9c77157ea&ei=5094&partner=homepage) - New York Times
Rumsfeld Resigns As Secretary of Defense (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110801369.html) - Associated Press
Rumsfeld Quits After Democrats Ride Iraq to Win (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110801381.html) - Reuters
Rumsfeld a Forceful, Divisive Pentagon Chief (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110801503.html) - Reuters
Press Conference by the President (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061108-2.html) - White House News Transcript

Merv Benson
11-08-2006, 09:12 PM
Robert Gates has done a pretty good job at Texas A&M. (The campus is about 30 miles from my house.) A&M has a strong military tradition. It sent more lieutenants to World War II than any other school. While it is no longer mandatory to be a member of the Corps of Cadets, they still make up an important part of the student body. A&M also houses the Bush 41 presidential library and it hosts numerous events on current affairs about the hotspots around the world.

I think he will do fine, if the opponents of the war do not decide to make him a piniata, like they did Rumsfeld.

He has already had one of the toughest jobs in the country--trying to find a winning football coach for Texas A&M.

zenpundit
11-08-2006, 09:19 PM
I heartily endorse the selection of Robert Gates and encourage SWC members to check out his memoir.

Gates is a tough but not unreasonable manager. His time at CIA under Casey gave him a deep look at covert and special operations and his service on the NSC gives a much broader perspective. Gates was not a " staff guy" but a key presidential adviser and an adviser to other principals. Some gravitas here.

Culpeper
11-09-2006, 12:52 AM
In my opinion Rumsfield did a great job in the beginning where conventional warfare was the stronger point of the sword. I don't know if he was doing a good job switching to counterinsurgency tactics or not. Maybe someone here could could elaborate fuller on this matter. Thanks.

SWJED
11-09-2006, 01:33 AM
In my opinion Rumsfield did a great job in the beginning where conventional warfare was the stronger point of the sword. I don't know if he was doing a good job switching to counterinsurgency tactics or not. Maybe someone here could could elaborate fuller on this matter. Thanks.

... we declared 'game won' in the fourth. Zinni was spot on and warned us that 'regime change' is not an end state. Great tactics equate to sand in the wind unless there is a strategy to achieve a defined end state.

SWJED
11-09-2006, 12:48 PM
Way too many links to post here individually - go here to the SWJ Daily News Links (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/news/061109.htm) for:

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld


Press Conference by the President - White House News Transcript
Bush Replaces Rumsfeld After Republican Defeat - Voice of America
Bush, Rumsfeld Agree: ‘Timing Right for New Leadership at Pentagon’ - AFPS
Rumsfeld to Step Down as Defense Secretary - Washington Post
Rumsfeld Resigns Under Pressure - Washington Times
A Meek Departure From the War Cabinet - Washington Post
Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary - New York Times
Rumsfeld Resigns; Bush Vows to ‘Find Common Ground’ - New York Times
Rumsfeld Resigns as Secretary of Defense - Stars and Stripes
Rumsfeld Resigns After Democrat Victory - London Daily Telegraph
Rumsfeld and Bush: Casualties of Iraq - London Times
Shake-Up, Part 2: Rumsfeld Departs - Christian Science Monitor
Rumsfeld Resigns As Secretary of Defense - Associated Press
Rumsfeld Quits After Democrats Ride Iraq to Win - Reuters
Rumsfeld Out as Bush Takes Election Blame - Agence France-Presse
Rumsfeld Replaced After Poll Loss - BBC News
Rumsfeld’s Resignation Decided Yesterday, Bush Tells Reporters - AFPS
Bush Changes Tunes on Rumsfeld Staying - Associated Press
Rumsfeld Departure Shakes Bush Administration - BBC News
Rumsfeld Sought New Role for Pentagon - Los Angeles Times
Rumsfeld, A Newsmaker Who's Certainly Hard to Follow - Washington Post
Rumsfeld a Forceful, Divisive Pentagon Chief - Reuters
Rumsfeld Worked to Transform Defense Department During Tenure - AFPS
Rumsfeld: Long Public and Private Career - Associated Press
Profile: Donald Rumsfeld - BBC News
Exit Strategy, Post-Rumsfeld - Los Angeles Times Editorial
Rumsfeld’s Departure - New York Times Editorial
The Verdict on Rumsfeld - Boston Globe Editorial
The Defense Secretary We Had - Washington Post Commentary
"Like Rumsfeld, Only Smaller" - Tech Central Station Commentary
Why Master Tactician Had to Fall on His Sword - London Times Commentary
Casualty of Own 'War on Terror' - London Daily Telegraph Commentary
I Question The Timing, And The Sanity - Captain's Quarters Blog
Mr. Rumsfeld Out, But Problems Remain - Westhawk Blog
Rumsfeld Resigns - Belmont Club Blog
Rumsfeld Resigns – With Analysis - Austin Bay Blog


Secretary of Defense Nominee Robert Gates


Gates Expected to Make Changes at Pentagon - Voice of America
Gaining Military’s Trust Is Early Step - New York Times
Robert Gates Lauded As Breaker of Barriers - Washington Post
Robert Gates, a Cautious Player - New York Times
Nomination Offers ‘Fresh Perspective' - USA Today
Gates Faces Major Challenges - New York Times
The Man Who'll Replace Rummy - Time Magazine
Defense Secretary Nominee Boasts Strong Intelligence Background - AFPS
Biographical Information on Robert Gates - Associated Press
Profile: Robert Gates - BBC News

slapout9
11-09-2006, 11:43 PM
Dave, you have just been promoted to the new position of 5 star general. What would be your strategy for Iraq?

SWJED
11-09-2006, 11:51 PM
Dave, you have just been promoted to the new position of 5 star general. What would be your strategy for Iraq?

Fire myself and hire a slew of Iron Majors and Strategic Corporals to take my place...

slapout9
11-10-2006, 12:05 AM
And your orders sir?

SWJED
11-10-2006, 05:33 AM
10 November London Times - Troops Fear Rumsfeld's Exit Will End Their Iraq Mission (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2446536,00.html) by Martin Fletcher.


Half of America and the upper echelons of the US military may be cheering Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation from the post of Defence Secretary, but there was no rejoicing yesterday among those most directly affected by his decisions: the frontline soldiers in Iraq.

Troops expressed little pleasure at the departure of the man responsible for their protracted deployment to a hostile country where 2,839 of their comrades have died.

Indeed, some members of the 101st Airborne Division and other troops approached by The Times as they prepared to fly home from Baghdad airport yesterday expressed concern that Robert Gates, Mr Rumsfeld’s successor, and the Democrat-controlled Congress, might seek to wind down their mission before it was finished.

Mr Rumsfeld “made decisions, he stuck with them and he did what he thought was right, whether people agreed with it, liked it, or not”, Staff Sergeant Frank Notaro said. He insisted that Iraq was better off now than before the war.

Staff Sergeant Michael Howard said: “It’s a blow to the military. He was a good Secretary of Defence. He kept us focused. He kept the leaders focused. It’s going to be hard to fill his shoes.”

But one US army colonel, who did not want to be named, said that such positive views were uncommon in the higher ranks of the US military. “We are the ones closer to the problem. We are the ones who have the broader picture,” he said.

The colonel criticised Mr Rumsfeld for sending too few troops to Iraq, and for refusing to listen to the advice of his generals. He noted that General Eric Shinseki, the former US Army Chief of Staff, was dismissed for demanding more troops, while General John Abizaid, the commander of Central Command, was the sole general to have differed publicly with Mr Rumsfeld and survived...

SWJED
11-10-2006, 03:47 PM
http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/images/secdef.jpg

Transition at the Department of Defense (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/news/rumsfeld.htm) - at the SWJ (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/worm.htm)

SWJED
11-12-2006, 07:50 AM
12 November Washington Post - How (Not) to Run the Pentagon (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001368.html). Robert Gates speech excerpt from 8 September 2006.


It is a fact of life in institutions that leaders come and go. Sometimes when they leave, there is regret among the professionals and staff who remain. More often, the celebrations begin before the departing executive's taillights are out of sight. Some leaders arrive with ambitious agendas and seek to impose them by fiat -- unilaterally and from above. They usually provoke either paralyzing opposition and internal warfare, or see the reversal of every action immediately after their departure...

I have long believed that the secret to successful leadership of public institutions -- especially in leading change -- is the involvement in decision-making of those who carry out the institution's mission: involvement in setting the agenda, involvement in shaping options, involvement in decisions, and involvement in implementation.

Uboat509
11-12-2006, 06:54 PM
While we are on the subject of new SECDEFs what does everybody think about Max Boot as SECDEF? He has reluctantly accepted the Neocon label but he is no partisan cheerleader. He really seems to have a handle on the military and he is unafraid to say what he thinks even if it is not in keeping with the party line.

SFC W

SWJED
11-14-2006, 08:29 AM
14 November Washington Post - Gates May Rein In Pentagon Activities (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/13/AR2006111301135.html) by Walter Pincus.


The nomination of Robert M. Gates as secretary of defense has begun to ease concerns in the intelligence community about the rapid growth of Pentagon intelligence activities since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said experts inside and outside the government and on Capitol Hill.

Gates, a former CIA director, has a long history of opposing expansive Pentagon intelligence activities. He has voiced unease about roles being taken over by Pentagon personnel, in part because more than 80 percent of all intelligence spending is now done by Defense Department agencies.

Donald H. Rumsfeld, the outgoing defense secretary, has vastly expanded Pentagon intelligence activities, increasing operations overseas and creating a new position and a new agency to handle military intelligence...

Merv Benson
11-15-2006, 02:51 PM
This post (http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/2006/11/gates-was-agent-of-change-at-texas-am.html) links an interesting article from Texas Monthly that was written before his nomination was announced. There is much talk about transformation and how he got the Deans and the faculty involved in decisions. The article hit the news stands about the time his nomination was announced.

SWJED
11-19-2006, 08:13 AM
19 November New York Times editorial - The Army We Need (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/opinion/19sun1.html).


One welcome dividend of Donald Rumsfeld’s departure from the Pentagon is that the United States will now have a chance to rebuild the Army he spent most of his tenure running down.

Mr. Rumsfeld didn’t like the lessons the Army drew from Vietnam — that politicians should not send American troops to fight a war of choice unless they went in with overwhelming force, a clearly defined purpose and strong domestic backing. He didn’t like the Clintonian notion of using the United States military to secure and rebuild broken states.

And when circumstances in Afghanistan and Iraq called for just the things Mr. Rumsfeld didn’t like, he refused to adapt, letting the Army, and American interests, pay the price for his arrogance.

So one of the first challenges for the next defense secretary and the next Congress is to repair, rebuild and reshape the nation’s ground forces. They need to renew the morale and confidence of America’s serving men and women and restore the appeal of career military service for the brightest young officers.

That will require building a force large enough to end more than three years of unsustainably rapid rotations of units back into battle, misuse of the National Guard, overuse of the Reserves and conscription of veterans back into active service.

Congress also needs to work harder at rebuilding the links between the battlefront and the home front that a healthy democracy needs. That does not require reinstating the draft — a bad idea for military as well as political reasons. It requires a Congress willing to resume its proper constitutional role in debating and deciding essential questions of war and peace...

More at the link...

slapout9
11-19-2006, 01:33 PM
Dave, in the article he recommends the USMC be increased to 180,000 and concentrate on the tactical assault force in readiness mission. What does the USMC think about that in view of it's history with small (irregular warfare)?

SWJED
11-19-2006, 01:38 PM
Dave, in the article he recommends the USMC be increased to 180,000 and concentrate on the tactical assault force in readiness mission. What does the USMC think about that in view of it's history with small (irregular warfare)?

Like any large organization there are many different opinions on the end-state size of the Corps. My personal opinion is I would like to at least see our size grow to compensate for the Marines now asssigned to MARSOC.

As has been stated on this board previously by some, increasing "gunfighter" manpower levels is a tricky business in that there has to be a corresponding increase in the support structure.

We just changed over Commandants so we might hear more on this issue in the near future....

SWJED
11-22-2006, 06:36 PM
We just changed over Commandants so we might hear more on this issue in the near future....

22 November AFPS - Ops Tempo May Require Larger Marine Corps, Commandant Says (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=2196)


The Marine Corps may have to grow to keep up a tempo of operations that has caused individual and institutional stress in the force, the service's commandant said here today.

At a roundtable discussion with the Pentagon press corps, Gen. James Conway said working to alleviate the individual and institutional strain on the Marine Corps is his major goal as commandant.

Marines spend seven months deployed to Iraq and seven months home. In 2003, the general told reporters, he said the stress would show by the third deployment. “I was wrong,” he said today. Turnover in the units has bought the Corps some time, he explained. By the time a unit makes its second deployment, only about 40 to 50 percent of the unit’s Marines had served in the unit’s the first deployment. By the third deployment, that percentage drops to about 10 percent, he said.

Some units are preparing for their fourth deployment. “Virtually no one in those units went the first time,” he said.

If the current deployment trend continues, Conway said, Marines and their families may leave the service. “The young families, Marines (and) sailors may say it’s more than they are willing to bear,” he said.

The Marine Corps would like to see a seven-month deployment followed by 14 months at home station, the commandant said. In peacetime, the deployment tempo is six months deployed, 18 months at home.

In addition to the stress on individual Marines and their families, Conway said, the Marine Corps as an institution is also strained. “Progressively over time, our Marine Corps has become a good counterinsurgency-capable force, but we’re not providing to the nation some of the other things we should be able to do,” he said. “We are not sending battalions like we used to for mountain warfare training, the jungle training. We’re not doing combined arms exercises that we used to do for the fire and maneuver. (These are) activities that we have to be prepared to do.”

Conway said the Marine Corps mission includes these contingencies, but the training time is not available. He said the Corps could do whatever mission it is assigned, but there is an increased risk. “We may not deploy as quickly as we once did, we may not have quite the training that we once had, but we would be able to do the mission,” he said.

The Corps can ease these stresses and strains two ways, Conway said. “One is reducing the requirement,” he said. “The other is growing the force for what we call the Long War.”

The Marine Corps currently has 180,000 troops. Conway would not say how much the service would have to grow to make the 1-to-2 ratio for deployment/home station time possible.

Yet even in Iraq, the Corps could surge troops in if called upon, he said. “If that requirement is levied on us, we will provide,” the commandant said. But that, Conway said, would affect the Corps in the long term. “Anything that increases that requirement simply has long-range consequences on that rotation scheme and force generation model,” he said.

Turning to the war in Iraq, Conway said Marines in Anbar province are seeing some successes. The province is still a dangerous place, he acknowledged, “but there are still some positive things that we see happening out there.”

Tribal leaders in the far west around the Syrian border city of Qaim are stepping up and taking on al Qaeda in Iraq, he said, and it is relatively peaceful in that area. In other areas of the province, he said, 400 local Sunni Arabs have volunteered for the police force. Even in Ramadi, local Iraqis want to “exorcise al Qaeda from the city,” the general said.

Uboat509
11-23-2006, 04:30 AM
14 November Washington Post - Gates May Rein In Pentagon Activities (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/13/AR2006111301135.html) by Walter Pincus.

I overlooked this one earlier. If it is true then all my support for his nomination just evaporated. The reason so much of the intelligence is generated by the DOD is because we are better at it for reasons that I cannot go into here. I would really hate to see us hamstrung by CIA parochialism. I sincerely hope that this article is overstated.

SFC W