Tuesday | July 04, 2006

Email Discussion takes on DoD Transformation

Steve, thank you for your encouraging comments.

I think it important to note that the activities of the DoD that make
*NO* sense outside the context of its civilian leadership's thinking.
Rumsfeld and his boss are absolutely enveloped by "transformation of
the military" thinking.

They are busily preparing the military for a war that is not yet in
progress... and may never be.  They regard this as far sighted, unlike
the 'old thinkers' that are locked into 'the way we've always done it'.

Their preoccupation restricts commitment of resources from current
operations because they are unwilling to take steps in the short run
that will shape undesired future outcomes.  Thus opposition to a 30,000
increase to end strength.  Thus frequent redeployments of the same
troops.  "Transformation" is more vital to them than the current
operations in Iraq or Afghanistan, or their operational requirements.
This 'transformational" mindset had a profound effect on planning for
both Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'm not going to hold forth too much more here on this, but these
things impact directly on gaining retirement pay at age 55, or any
other end of career or mid-career benefits. The Pentagon's civilian
leadership (read that as "SECDEF" and crew) envision a small, lethal
force, composed of personnel who will depart after 10 years. That's why
they want a 'vesting' at 10 years, one that has no medical coverage,
and a retirement that begins for NO ONE until age 60 is reached by
them. They oppose *anything* that might shape a different future.

Our lot is cast with what the DoD enjoys calling "Old Thinking" - much
like "Old Europe" - on the subject of force composition and
deployments. Why?  Because the current operations far more fit that and
its manner of using redundancy of resources and having reserves in
great amounts.  I hope to bring more focus at that page on this issue
that is both important for our republic's future defense, and for
personnel issues like the one the site and this list is committed to
promote.

We can save the Flash Gordon thinking for that century far, far away.

-mike mitchell
 http://www.retire55.tk

stephen.a.lab...@us.army.mil wrote:
> Mike I wanted to congratulate you on some really timely articles in your website.

> It's disturbing to see this move to make "generational changes" in such short term time frames, with such little thought of the consequences. I can guarantee the Reserve and Guard will be severely damaged if, DOD is allowed to mobilize beyond the two year limitation and makes the Reserve system a "Operational Reserve" as opposed to its historic mission of a Strategic reserve. Maybe I'm not typical of the average Reservist, but before I'm deployed a third time since 9/11, I would like to see a bit more sacrifice from the Nation as a whole, as opposed to a small select few...After all, if we are really a Nation "at war" why is there only 3/10 th of 1 percent (statistic from VFW) of the population fighting it?

> I call it not making the politically tough decisions and passing the buck. While in Iraq we would read Stars and Stripes about how DOD was fighting tooth and nail to prevent Congress from raising the end strength _just_ 30,000 Soldiers. At the time many of us found it comical, but if this is really a "War" why is DOD fighting against raising the Active Duty end strength? Why in a "War" are Reserve units being de-activated en-masse due to budgetary constraints? and finally why in a "War" why is DOD looking to degrade benefits to Soldiers and Veterans as oppose to improve them?

> It still amazes me with the billions in fraud clearly evident during Hurricane Katrina, we can't even get HR 783 (Reserve Retirement Bill) to the floor for a vote. It seems to me this bill deserves at least an up or down vote, just as the Administrations Judicial nominees deserve that up or down vote. Its encouraging to see the additional Congressmen joining as co-sponsers but DOD is resisting this with all its strength.

> My apologies for being a bit chatty, but again congratulations on a your superior efforts on this issue.

> All the best!

> Maj SL

> "Either Lead, Follow, or get the Hell out of the Way!"
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