thedrifter
10-15-06, 07:52 AM
10-11-2006
It Just Keeps Dragging On
By Paul Connors
More than two years ago, I wrote a series of articles on the Army's botched handling of the recall of members of the Individual Ready Reserve and that series garnered much comment and interest on the part of enlisted members, warrant and commissioned officers with prior active duty service. Just today, I received an email from a former Sergeant (E-5) who had enlisted in August 2001. During his three years of service as a cavalry scout and paratrooper, he had advanced from recruit (E-1) through SGT (E-5); he received his DD-214 in August 2004 and as he outprocessed, was forced to endure the same threats of recall to active duty from the IRR that I had written about in each of the installments in the series posted here at DefenseWatch.
With this recall letter, this young former SGT had also been notified that he will not be returning to duty in his former MOS. Instead, he is being involuntarily retrained as a Civilian Affairs/Psychological Operations Specialist. After contacting the Army's Human Resources Command to determine if the orders were correct or had been issued in error, this same young man, now in his first semester of his junior year at the University of Southern California was informed that his orders were indeed correct and that he must report no later than 5 November (right in the middle of the semester). During that conversation, he was tersely reminded that failure to report would also bring with it adverse actions under the UCMJ. Once again, the heavy weight of the Army was brought to bear against a citizen of the republic who had served his combat tour, when so many have not even put on the uniform.
I was saddened to receive this email because it told me that nothing has changed since I first researched and wrote about the mishandlings of the recalls. During the intervening two years, we have seen the violence in Iraq grow in intensity, seen the death toll of American KIAs surpass 3,000, the number of WIAs exceed 20,000 and the recall of members of the IRR continue ad nauseum.
During that same two years, we have also heard from several retired Army and Marine Corps generals who informed the Congress and the nation at large that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been mismanaged from the outset and by no less a person than the Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld. This is the man who refused to provide sufficient force levels to both remove Saddam Hussein's evil regime and then, after the conquest, garrison and pacify the country. From the beginning, troops on the ground were totally and completely ill-equipped in the way of body armor and the soft-sided vehicles they used to patrol in became nothing more than death traps and flaming coffins as insurgents used new and very lethal explosives to compensate for their numerical disadvantages.
Recently, Major General John Batiste, U.S. Army (retired) testified before the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee. In his testimony, General Batiste rebuked the Defense Department and the Secretary of Defense for their ineptitude in planning, operational conduct of the war and the insurgency and dismissal of honest dissent. Lest anyone think that General Batiste's comments were partisan in nature, be assured that they were not. As he testified before select members of the Senate, all Democrats, he pointed out to them that he was a life-long Republican, leading one to understand that his words were those spoken by a man concerned for the future of the Army he loved and the nation he had served for his entire adult life.
General Batiste's words were offered up as a cry for help by a man who had forsaken continued promotion. His record was one that would be envied by any officer aspiring to serve at the highest levels of command. Yet he gave it all up because he believed that he could help the Army more on the outside than he ever could while still wearing its uniform.
Lest anyone think that General Batiste came to the Senate to lambaste DoD and its leadership, be assured that he did not spare the Congress its role as the oversight for the administration's actions and policies in Iraq. He took them for task for waiting for more than three years to ask the necessary and pointed questions regarding our national goals in Iraq. By doing so, General Batiste added his name to the list of six former Army and Marine Corps general officers who believe that the meddling by Secretary Rumsfeld has done more to impede and damage our war efforts than to help them. These seven general officers, now retired, have taken the first steps to warn the nation that where Iraq is concerned, all is not what the SecDef hopes you will believe.
As the United States completes its fourth year of ground operations in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan also continues. In the meantime, the United States Army, now authorized to grow to 510,000 soldiers continues to recall members of the IRR. The use of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve continues at a frenetic and record pace and reserve component units that have already deployed are making plans to re-deploy for a war that appears to have no end.
Donald Rumsfeld is the leader of the world's most powerful military force. Unfortunately for the men and women who serve as our first line of defense, they have a cabinet secretary with both the ear and loyalty of the Commander-in-Chief. The generals who lead them in the field are constitutionally obligated to remain publicly silent when they disagree with the policies of the administration and the wars they fight. It is only when they retire that they obtain the reprieve they need to stand up and have their voices as citizens heard.
Coincidental with General Batiste's testimony before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, Bob Woodward, Managing Editor of THE WASHINGTON POST released his latest book entitled STATE OF DENIAL. In that book, he brings to light many of the issues that were raised by General Batistse and the men who preceded him earlier this year. The glaring inadequacies and failures by the civilian leadership at The Pentagon are frightening to read about. The incompetence places all of us at risk, but most importantly, the lack of competent leadership at the highest levels of the Defense Department are dangerous to the health and well being of our troops in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then men and women of America's armed forces deserve better from their leaders and I applaud General Batiste for his very clear but alarming report on the conditions endured by our deployed troops. Let us hope that the message delivered by General Batiste is heard loud and clear in the corridors of power before it's too late.
Copyright 2006, Paul Connors. Paul Connors is a Sr. Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at paulconnors@hotmail.com
Please send your comments to dwfeedback@yahoo.com
Ellie
It Just Keeps Dragging On
By Paul Connors
More than two years ago, I wrote a series of articles on the Army's botched handling of the recall of members of the Individual Ready Reserve and that series garnered much comment and interest on the part of enlisted members, warrant and commissioned officers with prior active duty service. Just today, I received an email from a former Sergeant (E-5) who had enlisted in August 2001. During his three years of service as a cavalry scout and paratrooper, he had advanced from recruit (E-1) through SGT (E-5); he received his DD-214 in August 2004 and as he outprocessed, was forced to endure the same threats of recall to active duty from the IRR that I had written about in each of the installments in the series posted here at DefenseWatch.
With this recall letter, this young former SGT had also been notified that he will not be returning to duty in his former MOS. Instead, he is being involuntarily retrained as a Civilian Affairs/Psychological Operations Specialist. After contacting the Army's Human Resources Command to determine if the orders were correct or had been issued in error, this same young man, now in his first semester of his junior year at the University of Southern California was informed that his orders were indeed correct and that he must report no later than 5 November (right in the middle of the semester). During that conversation, he was tersely reminded that failure to report would also bring with it adverse actions under the UCMJ. Once again, the heavy weight of the Army was brought to bear against a citizen of the republic who had served his combat tour, when so many have not even put on the uniform.
I was saddened to receive this email because it told me that nothing has changed since I first researched and wrote about the mishandlings of the recalls. During the intervening two years, we have seen the violence in Iraq grow in intensity, seen the death toll of American KIAs surpass 3,000, the number of WIAs exceed 20,000 and the recall of members of the IRR continue ad nauseum.
During that same two years, we have also heard from several retired Army and Marine Corps generals who informed the Congress and the nation at large that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been mismanaged from the outset and by no less a person than the Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld. This is the man who refused to provide sufficient force levels to both remove Saddam Hussein's evil regime and then, after the conquest, garrison and pacify the country. From the beginning, troops on the ground were totally and completely ill-equipped in the way of body armor and the soft-sided vehicles they used to patrol in became nothing more than death traps and flaming coffins as insurgents used new and very lethal explosives to compensate for their numerical disadvantages.
Recently, Major General John Batiste, U.S. Army (retired) testified before the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee. In his testimony, General Batiste rebuked the Defense Department and the Secretary of Defense for their ineptitude in planning, operational conduct of the war and the insurgency and dismissal of honest dissent. Lest anyone think that General Batiste's comments were partisan in nature, be assured that they were not. As he testified before select members of the Senate, all Democrats, he pointed out to them that he was a life-long Republican, leading one to understand that his words were those spoken by a man concerned for the future of the Army he loved and the nation he had served for his entire adult life.
General Batiste's words were offered up as a cry for help by a man who had forsaken continued promotion. His record was one that would be envied by any officer aspiring to serve at the highest levels of command. Yet he gave it all up because he believed that he could help the Army more on the outside than he ever could while still wearing its uniform.
Lest anyone think that General Batiste came to the Senate to lambaste DoD and its leadership, be assured that he did not spare the Congress its role as the oversight for the administration's actions and policies in Iraq. He took them for task for waiting for more than three years to ask the necessary and pointed questions regarding our national goals in Iraq. By doing so, General Batiste added his name to the list of six former Army and Marine Corps general officers who believe that the meddling by Secretary Rumsfeld has done more to impede and damage our war efforts than to help them. These seven general officers, now retired, have taken the first steps to warn the nation that where Iraq is concerned, all is not what the SecDef hopes you will believe.
As the United States completes its fourth year of ground operations in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan also continues. In the meantime, the United States Army, now authorized to grow to 510,000 soldiers continues to recall members of the IRR. The use of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve continues at a frenetic and record pace and reserve component units that have already deployed are making plans to re-deploy for a war that appears to have no end.
Donald Rumsfeld is the leader of the world's most powerful military force. Unfortunately for the men and women who serve as our first line of defense, they have a cabinet secretary with both the ear and loyalty of the Commander-in-Chief. The generals who lead them in the field are constitutionally obligated to remain publicly silent when they disagree with the policies of the administration and the wars they fight. It is only when they retire that they obtain the reprieve they need to stand up and have their voices as citizens heard.
Coincidental with General Batiste's testimony before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, Bob Woodward, Managing Editor of THE WASHINGTON POST released his latest book entitled STATE OF DENIAL. In that book, he brings to light many of the issues that were raised by General Batistse and the men who preceded him earlier this year. The glaring inadequacies and failures by the civilian leadership at The Pentagon are frightening to read about. The incompetence places all of us at risk, but most importantly, the lack of competent leadership at the highest levels of the Defense Department are dangerous to the health and well being of our troops in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then men and women of America's armed forces deserve better from their leaders and I applaud General Batiste for his very clear but alarming report on the conditions endured by our deployed troops. Let us hope that the message delivered by General Batiste is heard loud and clear in the corridors of power before it's too late.
Copyright 2006, Paul Connors. Paul Connors is a Sr. Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at paulconnors@hotmail.com
Please send your comments to dwfeedback@yahoo.com
Ellie