Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Examiner
April 20, 2007
By Rowan Scarborough, National Security Correspondent
WASHINGTON - The new Army chief has begun his four-year term with a new theme — “persistent combat” — for how soldiers will one day prevail against fanatics in al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
Gen. George Casey, who became chief of staff April 10, says the Army must think of wars as lasting a decade or more, not a few years, if it hopes to wear down a foe who fights by ambush and suicide attacks in an effort to break America’s will.
Instead of planning to deploy, win and return home, the military will begin preparing for a deployment and a long stay, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in other countries where militant Islam may rise up.
A Casey spokesman said the new theme emerged from the work of a transition team that interviewed more than 300 personnel and outside experts to determine the Army’s direction.
“Persistent combat is an attempt to change the thinking,” said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, who has published articles contending the current Army is broken by five years of war in Afghanistan and four in Iraq. “If the Army is to defeat militant Islam it must be able to deploy and stay there, sustaining itself for longer periods of time.”
It is a major shift from old assumptions that an expeditionary Army should be built to deploy and return home in fairly short order, as it did in the Desert Storm conflict in 1991.
If the Army is to sustain itself for longer wars, it needs more soldiers and much larger stocks of equipment, Scales said.
Instead of 70-ton Abrams tanks that guzzle gas and require huge operating bases, the Army needs smaller armored vehicles designed to withstand insurgent roadside bombs.
This scenario fits in nicely with the Army’s largest weapons acquisition plan now before Congress: the Future Combat System, a family of ground and air vehicles.
The Army already has won on the personnel front. President Bush has approved a 65,000-soldier increase, taking the active force to 547,000.
Casey has been sounding his “persistent combat” theme in talks inside the Pentagon to uniform and civilian staff. He hinted at the new push last week at a ceremony installing him as Army chief of staff.
“This foe will not go away nor will he give up easily, and the next decade is likely to be one of persistent conflict,” Casey said. “We are engaged in a long war.”
April 20, 2007
By Rowan Scarborough, National Security Correspondent
WASHINGTON - The new Army chief has begun his four-year term with a new theme — “persistent combat” — for how soldiers will one day prevail against fanatics in al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
Gen. George Casey, who became chief of staff April 10, says the Army must think of wars as lasting a decade or more, not a few years, if it hopes to wear down a foe who fights by ambush and suicide attacks in an effort to break America’s will.
Instead of planning to deploy, win and return home, the military will begin preparing for a deployment and a long stay, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in other countries where militant Islam may rise up.
A Casey spokesman said the new theme emerged from the work of a transition team that interviewed more than 300 personnel and outside experts to determine the Army’s direction.
“Persistent combat is an attempt to change the thinking,” said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, who has published articles contending the current Army is broken by five years of war in Afghanistan and four in Iraq. “If the Army is to defeat militant Islam it must be able to deploy and stay there, sustaining itself for longer periods of time.”
It is a major shift from old assumptions that an expeditionary Army should be built to deploy and return home in fairly short order, as it did in the Desert Storm conflict in 1991.
If the Army is to sustain itself for longer wars, it needs more soldiers and much larger stocks of equipment, Scales said.
Instead of 70-ton Abrams tanks that guzzle gas and require huge operating bases, the Army needs smaller armored vehicles designed to withstand insurgent roadside bombs.
This scenario fits in nicely with the Army’s largest weapons acquisition plan now before Congress: the Future Combat System, a family of ground and air vehicles.
The Army already has won on the personnel front. President Bush has approved a 65,000-soldier increase, taking the active force to 547,000.
Casey has been sounding his “persistent combat” theme in talks inside the Pentagon to uniform and civilian staff. He hinted at the new push last week at a ceremony installing him as Army chief of staff.
“This foe will not go away nor will he give up easily, and the next decade is likely to be one of persistent conflict,” Casey said. “We are engaged in a long war.”