Policymakers 'Plan to be Surprised' in New Global Posture
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 30, 2004 – Defense Department policymakers understand they may
not know where the next threat may come from. The way they deal with this
challenge is to "plan to be surprised," DoD's top policy official said today.
"There are going to be all kinds of things that are going to arise that nobody
can anticipate," Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary for policy, said in an
interview with The Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service. "That's
an interesting challenge for planners."
Defense officials are working to design a new global posture for U.S. military
forces that focuses on capabilities rather than numbers of forces in a specific
region.
"What we've learned in recent fighting is that we are able to bring about very
large military effects with smaller forces than anybody thought were capable of
those effects in past eras," Feith said.
The issue, he added, is not how many forces are deployed to a given area, it's
"What kind of military capability we can rapidly and effectively bring to bear
in that area?"
Planners are doing away with the notion that forces stationed in a specific
region "belong" to the corresponding combatant commander and are limited to
operations in that area.
"We are working on the concept that we have a single force available for
whatever is required around the world," Feith said. He noted the troops don't
belong to combatant commanders, but to the American people -- to be available
to the president to send wherever they are needed in the world.
The force restructuring will likely heavily affect forces stationed in places
like Germany and Korea, where the United States maintains a large, permanent
military presence.
In Germany, for example, U.S. troops are garrisoned in defensive postures to
guard against extinct Cold War enemies. "We intend to move those heavy forces
out over a period of years and bring in a lighter, more rapidly deployable,
more high-tech force that will keep our bilateral relationship with Germany
strong and keep the NATO alliance strong," Feith said.
Forces in Korea will be restructured, as well. Moving the bulk of U.S. forces
south from the demilitarized zone will put them out of range of the "enormous
investment" North Korea has made in artillery. The restructuring of U.S. forces
there also recognizes South Korean forces are becoming a more formidable
military power in the region.
Defense officials are working to take the quality of life of military members
and their families into account. Feith said he hopes that in the future
families won't be placed in a situation many are faced with today: they are
stationed overseas, away from extended family and support systems, and then the
military members are deployed, forcing a further separation on the families.
Future overseas force posture will focus more on rotational activities and
combined exercises. "In general," Feith said, "it will be a lighter footprint
for the United States around the world. We will have presence, but we're not
going to have main operating bases in a number of places in the world."
He added that officials hope this will bring more stability to family members.
"We want as much predictability as an unpredictable world allows," he said.
Feith said major moves wouldn't likely take place before 2005, and could be
stretched over about five years. He explained three types of moves are under
consideration: within regions, between regions, and from foreign regions to the
continental United States.
Planners have made the most progress on moving forces from foreign regions to
home. Feith said officials have agreed on broad ideas about how many troops
would be moving home and would be briefing Congress on those plans in coming
weeks. It's important to think far ahead on such changes because the numbers
have to be accounted for in base-realignment actions mandated by Congress, he
said.
No moves of units from foreign locations are being planned while the service
members are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. For instance, soldiers deployed
from Germany to Iraq will return to Germany before their family members would
have to be moved back to the United States, Feith said. Other changes, within
regions and from one region to another, are being discussed with various host
nations.
The undersecretary called the coming changes "historic" in terms of their
worldwide scope. "The effects of this are going to last for decades," he said.
"If you look at it from the point of view of the ability to get forces into a
region rather than who is permanently based there, and if you look at it again
from the point of view of capabilities rather than just numbers, I think we are
going to have … greater capability all over the world than we have now."
Biography:
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J.
Feith
Related Articles:
Defense Details Global
Posture Realignment Process
Myers: No Final Decision Yet
on U.S. Posture in Germany
Fewer Numbers Don't Mean Less
Capability, Rumsfeld Says
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