By Jacquelyn S. Porth
Washington File Security Affairs Writer

A senior Defense Department official says the United States will transform its military in parallel with its allies around the world with an emphasis on military capabilities, rather than the numbers of troops or weapons stockpiles.

The official, who briefed reporters at the Washington-based Foreign Press Center (FPC) August 16, said that the number of U.S. troops deployed around the world are not necessarily the best measure of effectiveness.

The official, who declined to be identified, provided background information about President Bush's initiative to reduce the number of U.S. forces aligned around the world by 60,000 to 70,000 over the next seven to 10 years. Although many details remain to be worked out, the President announced his decision to realign U.S. military forces now positioned to address a Cold War-era threat into one that would, instead, more accurately reflect threats likely to be encountered in the 21st century.

A senior State Department official, who also briefed on the subject, described this initiative as one designed to change and modernize the global alignment of U.S. forces and one that will involve many countries around the world. The initiative involves working "side-by-side" with American allies, he added.

The President's announcement of the initiative during a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention in Ohio signals that it is now time to tackle the details of the military plan formulated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and military commanders around the world, the official said. "We will be sitting down with governments to talk about what we have in mind and to see if we can negotiate in detail the plans for this important change in our defense posture," he said.

A new global defense posture is needed, the senior Defense Department official said, because "we are in a new era," facing a host of new and complex challenges. There is an overall recognition, he said, that a great deal of U.S. military assets and infrastructure were put in place for an era that no longer exists.

This prompted a question from a reporter concerned about the ramifications of future U.S. troop withdrawals from Germany. Both officials noted the importance of Germany as an ally of the United States. The defense official indicated that heavy armored divisions, however, are no longer needed in Germany and will be replaced by lighter, more agile Striker brigades.

Another reporter asked about plans for West Africa. The senior State Department official noted that West Africa's security is not only important, but also growing in importance to the United States. The defense official said more attention would be given to establishing training exercises with countries in that region of the world and to concluding other mutual beneficial military arrangements.

When another reporter asked about possible shifts of U.S. forces from Europe to the Middle East, the official said one should look, instead, at the realignment as a deployment of military forces to an area where they are most needed "at a given moment." The Pentagon official also reminded reporters that the United States would maintain forces in Iraq until stability returns to that country. On the issue of a permanent U.S. military base in Iraq, the official noted that this is decision for the government of Iraq to make after the country stabilizes.

The State Department official said that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has just returned from Russia where he briefed his counterpart about the premise of the military transformation and provided some details about it. The Defense Department official told the reporters at the FPC that the plan "is not aimed at Russia."

In the future, the U.S. military will focus more on the need for forward operating facilities and access to locations for occasional training purposes, the official said. He pointed to existing arrangements with Thailand as an example. Each year, the United States works with Thailand as part of a series of "Cobra Gold" military exercises, he said, where the military can go into an area, exercise, and then leave.

The officials emphasized that the United States will maintain existing military commitments throughout the process of redeploying troops. They also said the global defense posture review is separate from a future round of base closings in the United States.

The Defense Department is working on a set of recommendations to close a number of U.S. bases and will submit them to a special commission in the spring of 2005. The Commission will then submit the package to Congress for a future vote.