Last week there were two major events coming out of the Defense Department, the release of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and a recommendation by both the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy be repealed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military.
Looking first at the QDR, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 established the QDR requirement mandating that every four years the Secretary of Defense in consultation with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs conduct a review of:
National Defense Strategy
Force Structure and Modernization plans
Infrastructure
Budget
Other elements
There have been three previous QDRs: 1997, 2001, and 2006. This year’s publication of the QDR also coincides with the defense budget request. This year’s budget request is $708.3 Billion, a 2.3% increase over last year’s.
The Department of Defense has put out an excellent point paper summarizing the QDR’s key points which are:
– Prevail in today’s wars
– Prevent and deter conflict
– Prepare to defeat adversaries and succeed in a wide range of contingencies
– Preserve and enhance the All-Volunteer Force
It’s not my intent in this blog to give a blow by blow description of the QDR; but several things did jump out at me. For as long as I can remember, defense planning centered around being able to fight two major conventional wars at the same time. This was a relic of the types of crises faced during the Cold War. In today’s environment adversaries know they would not be able to defeat us on a conventional battle field so they are coming at us through perceived weak spots using techniques such as terrorist attacks and cyber warfare. I think the reason “prevailing in today’s wars is now the top priority is because if we don’t, potential adversaries will have a blueprint on how to conduct a campaign to defeat us. They’ll look at what tactics worked and use them against us in the future.
For instance, one of the lessons learned by potential and real enemies from studying the Vietnam conflict was the U.S. public has a low tolerance for casualties to U.S. forces and those of its allies. Raise the death and injury count and you will also raise the number of anti-war voices within the U.S. This tactic came close to working in Iraq. The new QDR recognizes our military must be designed to face threats from a variety of directions.
When presenting the QDR on February 1, 2010, Defense Secretary Gates stated: “The department’s leadership now recognizes that we must prepare for a much broader range of security challenges on the horizon. They range from the use of sophisticated new technologies to deny our forces access to the global commons of sea, air, space, and cyberspace to the threat posed by non-state groups developing more cunning and destructive means to attack and terrorize – scenarios that transcend the familiar contingencies that dominated U.S. planning after the Cold War.”
The QDR still says the military must be able to fight two conflicts but it’s been relegated to the third priority under “be prepared for other challenges”. The language has also changed, it now says: “defeat two regional aggressors” as opposed to fight two major conventional wars. Interestingly, this requirement is not a capability needed for now but “for the mid- to long-term”. That’s a major shift in the orientation of our defense forces and has ramifications for future defense acquisitions. I suspect if a proposed new weapon system is not seen to be of use in the current conflicts, the program is in danger of being cut. In fact the QDR proposes ending several programs such as the Navy’s EP(X) manned intelligence aircraft and ending the alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
A couple of other things jumped out at me. Secretary Gates states in order to prevail in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq he wants a 75% increase in the number of combat patrols by UAVs, more helicopters and increase the number of special operations systems and personnel. I hope when they increase the number of UAVs and UAV patrols they also increase the capacity of the intelligence community to analyze the increased amounts of data. They’re already swamped as I’ve reported in earlier blogs.
The last thing I’ll mention about the QDR is the document contains the usual statements that the defense acquisition system is broken and needs to be fixed. I’ll believe this when I see it. They’ve been saying it for years. I hope they do change the way they acquire new systems but……
I’ll end with my thoughts on “don’t ask, don’t tell”. I’m embarrassed to say that for years I was biased against gays and lesbians in the military. As with most prejudices, my views had their foundation in ignorance. I didn’t know any gay or lesbian people or so I thought. There is something about turning 50 that causes many, as Oprah would say, to start being true to their authentic selves. As friends and relatives started “coming out of the closet” in their older years, I was shocked and realized I did know some gays and lesbians including a few from my military days. Many were people I had the highest professional respect for.
It caused me to look at the issue of gays in the military in a new way. After much reflection, I now believe they have every right to serve openly in the military. I don’t understand people who say if they serve openly it will have a negative impact on the morale of the military forces. Sounds like the same sorts of things people said when they racially integrated the services after World War II and in the 1970’s when they started allowing women to serve in non traditional jobs. During my 28 years of service not one lesbian ever made a pass at me; that is why I thought I didn’t know any. I can only conclude one of two things. Either I’m in competition with the character Jamie Foxx created on the hit TV show In Living Color, Wanda the ugliest woman in the word; or the second more likely possibility was they were in the military for the same reason I was, they felt called to serve the nation. Many armies around the world have openly gay troops to include Great Britain, Canada, and Israel and have not reported any problems that I’m aware of. As always, my views are my own but for what it’s worth, repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” is okay with me.
