Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
Via American Footprints [nee Liberals Against Terrorism], the DoD is floating a wonderful trial balloon [emphasis mine]:
Sources tell The Hill that Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld is considering a proposal to eliminate the office ofthe assistant secretary of defense for special operations andlow-intensity conflict (ASD SO/LIC) and spreading its responsibilitiesacross other Pentagon offices.
Words fail me. When you're fighting a low-intensity conflict, why would you want to have specialists who spent their time thinking about low-intensity conflict? The DoD further rattles the saber, claiming that Rumsfeld could abolish the position without congressional approval [Insert NSA spying jokes as necessary]. American foot soldiers find themselves in more and more low-intensity conflicts: post-invasion Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, peacekeeping in the Balkans, etc. The fact that we could do a better job reducing casualties does not mean the solution is to eliminate the office that spends its day thinking about those sorts of fights; it's to replace the staff with new blood that's ready to break out of the cold-war mentality.. Thankfully, the proposal has yet to reach Rumsfeld's desk, and cooler heads are prevailing on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Elsewhere, I must respectfully dissent from Robert Farley's faint praise [UPDATE: link fixed] for Rumsfeld's effectiveness at the Defense Department. His utter contempt for post-war contingency planning has left an insufficient number of soldiers in harm's way with insufficient body armor or armored Humvees. The Military Police still don't get enough respect to match their efforts in Iraq. Meanwhile, despite the obvious importance of the Army and Marines, procurement plans for the expensive F22 fighter and DD(X) destroyer go unchecked. I'm all for a strong defense, but I think we'll have enough lead time to build new ships and planes should China suddenly get very bellicose. I Eeven the small things have gone wrong; DARPA has moved away from longer-term, blue sky research towards short-term work for defense contractors. The DoD continues to fight increases in pay and surivor benefits. And so on, and so on.
Bringing the Pentagon brass to heel on a series of bad policy priorities does not rank as an accomplishment.
