By Claudette Roulo, AFPS, WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2012 - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [an appointee of Obama] says the military must undergo three transitions in the coming years, with each dependent on finding the best way forward in lean economic times. [WOTN Editor comments in bold & brackets.]
During a town hall Thursday in Rosemount, Minn., Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told Minnesota National Guardsmen determining the best way to transform the military isn't just about what's best for the armed forces, but "really about figuring out what's best for the country" in the years ahead. [Translation: Obama is going to cut Troops, Pay, Benefits, & Equipment.]
"What does the nation need in 2020?" Dempsey asked. "How do we build that capability? ... How do we deliver in a way that's affordable for the nation?" [To be capable of defeating Terrorists, as well as foreign militaries and pirates of the High Seas.]
"We're all citizens first," he said. "Therefore, I think we've got to figure out how to help the country through that economic challenge while preserving the military that it needs." [Translation: bend over, this is going to hurt.]
Dempsey highlighted his three transitions. First, he said, is to move from a military that is generally focused on deploying for combat into one that can perform missions besides counterinsurgency. [It takes more Troops and better equipment to defeat foreign militaries, than it does a numerically inferior band of misfits.]
Service members of his generation were criticized as being "stuck in [a] Cold War mentality," Dempsey said. [Now he is stuck in a partisan attempt to cut the Military.]
"It was a challenge, I will admit to you," he said, "for us to change the way we looked at problems from that Cold War paradigm into the counterinsurgency paradigm."
"I would submit to you that those of you that have done nothing but [counterinsurgency] are going to have exactly the same challenge going back to looking at other kinds of warfare," he said. [That doesn't mean shiny boots and short haircuts. It means counter-ambush live fires and Infantry patrols.]
But that's exactly what service members must do, Dempsey said. "Not because we think it's on ... the horizon, but it could be someday and you can't wait until it's there to get ready for it." [There are multiple potential conventional wars on the horizon, not least of which are North Korea, Iran, and even China.]
The second transition is economic, he said, and involves managing a shift from the "largely unconstrained budgets of the last ten years -- 'if you needed it you got it' -- to something that is going to be more constrained." [Translation: In the future, you'll have to buy your own gear or go without. Veterans of the 90's remember those days.]
That might make service members uncomfortable, the chairman said, but the military has an obligation to become more affordable to the country. "Why? Because national power ... is actually the aggregate of three things, not just the military," Dempsey said. "It is the military, but it's also economic well-being and it's also diplomatic influence."
The last transition is the drawdown of military members. Over the next five to six years, the Army and Marines will reduce in size by about 120,000 people in total, he continued. [While the Obama Admin is busy hiring more unionized bureacrats, Dempsey is endorsing the Admin plan to cut Troops, while telling Troops to prepare for a Conventional War.]
"We owe it to those young men and women who have served so honorably and so well to make sure we take care of them," Dempsey said. [This is why he has endorsed the Obama plan to increase charges to Retirees for their own Health Care, and to decrease the pay of the remainder who have to do more, for less.]
"In all of that we've got to keep faith with our military family," he said, adding that family includes veterans, wounded warriors and the parents and spouses of service members killed in action. [His prescription plan means they will pay up to $60/prescription.]
One way to keep faith as the Defense Department draws down is to guarantee that resources continue to be dedicated to family support programs, Dempsey said.
"The challenge of course, is we've got 1,000 flowers blooming out there," he said. "We've got to make sure that we can identify the ones that are most important and ensure we continue to resource those."
"The second way we keep faith is by pay, compensation, healthcare and retirement," the chairman added. [That's why the Obama Admin has requested National Guard drill pay be cut in half.]
Finally, he said, keeping faith with the military family means providing the toughest training possible. "I'm not keeping faith with you if I resource all that other stuff and I don't train you," he explained, "because then I send you off to war and you're not ready for it." [That's why he wants annual training to be increased from two weeks a year to nearly two months.]
"Change is always uncomfortable," Dempsey said, "but often if we're agile enough, the change can actually make things better for us and improve relationships, not disrupt them." [Agility in this case may be in finding the exit, before he finds the exit only door. Fortunately for Dempsey, his retirement check will increase by an amount greater than his new Obama taxes will.]
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