Military Review

[Ray Levesque]

thanks. George. I reccomend the article on Transforming Army Intelligence. While it is still full of buzzwords, the 900 ton beast that is MI, is slowing starting to realize what the USMC has known for years, that Intel is about knowing your enemy, and knowing how people think and will act, it is not just a collection of computer systems and databases that remained locked behind the green door. Good news for young intel folks, bad news for defense contractors who are staffed by former MI officers who are always looking to sell a systems approach i.e. contractor run hardware/software programs.
_Art

First, up front, I'm an Army intel guy and have been for .... heck, a long time. Second, you can blame the supporters of "transformation" and the RMA, whose efforts were led by the Navy and Air Force -- two services that believe targeting is strategy. Third, the Army was punished, and has been punished repeatedly under Rumsfeld, for saying the RMA techo-babble-solution won't work and the whippings continued before and after the invasion of Iraq. Fourth, the Army mission is different than the USMC mission -- in ADDITION to LIC the Army is supposed to fight the country's conventional wars. Fifth, let's not forget that the Army had the lead in El Salvador and other places in Latin America.

The problem is not with the services...it's with the policy makers who cannot develop a strategy and force structure to deal with the REAL wars of today and the future.