Maritime Strategy Meets Mother Teresa

The decline in the warfighting ability of the U.S. -- which includes the will to fight -- is so precipitous under Bush (even though he didn't initiate it, just accelerated it) it is frightening.

"In the first major revision of U.S. naval strategy in two decades, maritime officials said Wednesday they plan to focus more on humanitarian missions and improving international cooperation as a way to prevent conflicts."

''Credible combat power will be continuously posted in
the Western Pacific and the Arabian Gulf/Indian Ocean to protect our vital interests, assure our friends ... and deter and dissuade potential adversaries,'' the strategy document said.

In what way is combat power "credible" when A.) the Navy is shrinking to the smallest number of ships since before WWII (something like 275 if memory serves me), and B.) every act of our government these days is to prove that our armed forces wouldn't attack a rubber duckie?

Defense Secretary Robert Gates hinted at the cooperative strategy during his recent five-country swing through Central and South America. Pointing to the recent tour of the Navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, which delivered medical care to people in 12 Latin American countries, Gates said such aid is critical to solidifying U.S. bonds with other nations.

Adm. Mike Mullen -- who just left his job as head of the Navy to
become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- has said he sees the Navy's humanitarian work as key to the effort to defeat terrorism by winning hearts and minds.

There was another story earlier this week from Gen. Sanchez (formerly leading the Iraq war) echoing similar tripe. Read the story below (it's short) and you'll see more of this idiocy. Truly, and I mean this, we need to make it death to the careers of general officers if they get degrees in international relations instead of in warfighting. Almost all these guys now get advanced degrees in peace-making nonsense from Ivy league schools to help their promotion chances. Time for it to end.

The basis for this story is a 16 page tract (attached) published by these wanna-bes who lay out their mission statement for saving the world with kindness. I figured it worth a look. That's the nature of forensic pathology.

(Apologies for the size of the attachment -- it takes the Department of Defense to turn a 16 page text document into a 1 megabyte PDF file. Do you know the definition of an elephant? A mouse built to government specifications. The elephant in this case is a lot of pictures of ships and planes and children and laughing people in foreign lands, all working in harmony with Our Guys. )

For instance, the conclusion of this mini-tome of bureaucratese and management jargon,

"The strategy focuses on opportunities - not threats; on optimism - not fear; and on confidence - not doubt. It recognizes the challenges imposed by the uncertain conditions in a time of rapid change and makes the case for the necessity of U.S. seapower in the 21st Century."

You get the idea. The upshot is that there's a lot of ocean out there, a lot of people nearby, and all the human suffering near the sea needs peace corp volunteers on Navy ships:

"Mass communications will highlight the drama of human suffering, and disadvantaged populations will be ever more painfully aware and less tolerant of their conditions. Extremist ideologies will become increasingly attractive to those in despair and bereft of opportunity. Criminal elements will also exploit this social instability."

Essentially, this policy statement is institutionalizing (well, it's one example of how it is being institutionalized) the notion that the *cause* of conflicts, like ours with countries of the Middle East or North Korea (don't forget how much grain and nuclear technology we have given the North, even as we let them devalue the dollar by printing billions every year in counterfeit currency), is unhappiness, suffering, misery, yadayada:

"A key to fostering such relationships is development of sufficient cultural, historical, and linguistic expertise among our Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen to nurture effective interaction with diverse international partners."

Now I ask you, would you want these fools leading you into battle? That is, some graduate of a college for kindergarten teachers who puts "nurturing abilities" on a par with warfighting?

"Building and reinvigorating these relationships through Theater Security Cooperation requires an increased focus on capacity-building, humanitarian assistance, regional frameworks for improving maritime governance, and cooperation in enforcing the rule of law in the maritime domain."

I think that "capacity building" part is how we're training the Iraqi police and armed forces to be useful allies of Iran -- and think Somalia for the humanitarian assistance part. Come to think of it, recall the story yesterday about how piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia and other places (even several hundred miles at sea) surged to an all-time high this year. There's the "rule of law in the maritime domain" part of this mission statement. Our need to cooperate with the U.N. has left us paralyzed to actually deal with even a few tribesman in wooden boats. But Our Guys even have the gall to add,

"To this end, the Global Maritime Partnerships initiative seeks a cooperative approach to maritime security, promoting the rule of law by countering piracy, ..."

How's that working for you? Go ride a small ship or boat off the Horn of Africa sometime. You'll learn the "law of the sea", arrrhh. Shiver me timbers.

Our wannabe saints then ramble on in a state of Christian rapture suitable for Joan of Arc,

"When natural or manmade disasters strike, our maritime forces can provide humanitarian assistance and relief, joining with interagency and non-governmental partners."

You can see their eyes looking up to heaven past the brim of their service hats. Here's where they really start speaking in tongues:

"Building on relationships forged in times of calm, we will continue to mitigate human suffering as the vanguard of interagency and multinational efforts, both in a deliberate, proactive fashion and in response to crises. Human suffering
moves us to act, and the expeditionary character of maritime forces uniquely positions them to provide assistance."

Makes me ill to think these yahoos are supposed to defend us, but I really feel sorry for the poor devils under them.

They say that to be a saint you have to perform at least three (or five, depending on the time and storyteller) miracles. I'm thinking our Admirals and Generals who got promoted based on a warfighting philosophy of pacifism and Christian charity and kindness performed one miracle, but I don't see any more coming along. They better forget about preparing those acceptance speeches at the Vatican.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Maritime-Strategy.html
Preventing War Leads New Naval Strategy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 17, 2007
Filed at 1:40 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the first major revision of U.S. naval strategy in two decades, maritime officials said Wednesday they plan to focus more on humanitarian missions and improving international cooperation as a way to prevent conflicts.

''We believe that preventing wars is as important as winning wars,'' said the new strategy announced by the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

The strategy reflects a broader Defense Department effort to use aid, training and other cooperative efforts to encourage stability in fledgling democracies and create relationships around the globe that can be leveraged if a crisis does break out in a region.

''Although our forces can surge when necessary to respond to crises, trust and cooperation cannot be surged,'' says the 16-page document entitled ''A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.''

It also says forces will be concentrated ''where tensions are high or where we wish to demonstrate to our friends and allies our commitment to security'' -- something the U.S. did earlier this year in sending an additional aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region as a show of force toward Iran.
''Credible combat power will be continuously posted in the Western Pacific and the Arabian Gulf/Indian Ocean to protect our vital interests, assure our friends ... and deter and dissuade potential adversaries,'' the strategy document said.

The strategy was unveiled before naval representatives of 100 countries who are attending an international symposium on the seas at the Naval War College in Rhode Island. It was described to them by Navy Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations; Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, and Adm. Thad W. Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard.

Roughead said the Navy completed a two-year study to create the new strategy.

''What came through was that our security and our prosperity is completely linked to the security and prosperity of other nations throughout the world,'' he said.

It represents the first time the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard have collaborated on a single, common strategy for defending the U.S. homeland and protecting U.S. interests overseas.

The Sept. 11 terror attacks demonstrated how the Navy's last major strategy, released publicly in 1986, had become irrelevant, Navy Cmdr. Bryan McGrath said. Drafted during the Cold War, the old plan focused on countering Soviet naval power across the globe.

''It was a war plan at its heart,'' McGrath said. ''When the Soviet Union fell, there was a lack of a big blue competitor.''

Defense Secretary Robert Gates hinted at the cooperative strategy during his recent five-country swing through Central and South America. Pointing to the recent tour of the Navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, which delivered medical care to people in 12 Latin American countries, Gates said such aid is critical to solidifying U.S. bonds with other nations. The USS Peleliu amphibious ship recently returned from a four-month tour in the Pacific and the USS Fort McHenry is heading this week for a seven-month mission along the west coast of Africa.

Conway said the Marine Corps supported the strategy, but was more focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Marines now most closely resemble the Army, he said.

''We are an expeditionary force by our nature. We go down to the sea in ships, but right now, we are very much taking on a profile as a second land army,'' Conway said.

Adm. Mike Mullen -- who just left his job as head of the Navy to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- has said he sees the Navy's humanitarian work as key to the effort to defeat terrorism by winning hearts and minds.

When Roughead succeeded Mullen at the Navy last week, he called in a speech for more international partnerships to make the Navy a ''force for good'' around the globe.

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Associated Press reporter Lolita Baldor contributed to this report from Washington and reporter Ray Henry contributed from Newport, R.I.