One can argue a BCT shouldn't be doing some or all of these tasks - but the AOE MTOE was worefully inadequate to those demands, and thus required pulling lots of manpower from BN's to meet the demands for increased operations by a BCT. Now the BCT staff has those people organically since the Army envisions the BCT continuing its operational vice tactical focus.

No one is for bloated staffs, but the amount currently being required of a BCT requires a large and experienced set of operators.
Getting off thread but OK. No argument on tasks or the AOE MTOE in current fight BUT the BCTs are still sucking manpower up--with a critical emphasis on experienced manpower. And we are rebuilding much of what was supposed to be replaced at the division and even corps by the more robust BCT staff. In all of this we have reduced the maneuver/shooter capacities at BN and below through end strength and again experience. Gratefully we have over the past 5 years at least won some gains in strengthening C3I capacity at the troop/company level.

Now back to the SecDef

I didn't see the speech as a one dimensional endorsement that Small Wars define the future. I saw it more as an endorsement that Small Wars will be part of that future and we must maintain capacity to deal with them. Interesting to see how changes wrought to force structure and capacity in this environment will adjust to MCO.

I do agree that the bureacracy is too slow inside the Beltway. It is not, as it as often said, a Cold War machine that was geared solely to a set conventional war and therefore unable to deal with a 21st Century War. It could be quite slow in the Cold War; it could also be very fast and efficient--when it needed to be. If you doubt that look at the Moon race as a Cold War non-kinetic effort involving lots of rocket fuel.

The services are not fighting a small war; the effort with regard to the size of the services makes it a large war. The rest of the government and the American public see it as a small war. I am not confident that anyone can change that without really establishing an atmosphere that accepts we all are in a large war. I am confident that no one is going to really do that in an election year.

Tom