Bush Offers New Vision of Military
By JAMES GERSTENZANG, TIMES STAFF WRITER http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-000098649dec12.story?coll= la%2Dheadlines%2Dfrontpage L.A. Times, 12/12/01
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Drawing on the war in Afghanistan to make his case, President Bush called Tuesday for reshaping the U.S. military into a 21st century fighting force that relies more extensively on high-tech weapons, such as unmanned aircraft, and expanded intelligence capabilities.
In sweeping terms, Bush argued that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed America's vision of its place in the world and the challenges facing the military. He termed the need to transform the nation's armed forces to meet the terrorism threat "the military and moral necessity of our time."
He added: "Our military has a new and essential mission. For states that support terror, it's not enough that the consequences be costly--they must be devastating." Bush's speech, delivered to cadets at the Citadel military college, reflected an effort to reinvigorate his drive to impose broad reforms on the Pentagon. His aim, as he stressed in his remarks, is to reorganize and streamline the military to better exploit technological advances in weapon systems.
The effort to change the military, led by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, had been one of the immediate goals of the Bush presidency. But it encountered considerable resistance on Capitol Hill and in the defense community, where objections are strong to shedding existing weapons and military bases. As a result, the push for reform appeared to be stalled until hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon three months ago.
An Earlier Pledge to Fight Terrorists
In Tuesday's speech, Bush referred to an address he gave as a presidential candidate two years ago in which he expressed concerns about terrorism. In that speech, also given at the Citadel, he gave the fight against terrorism an important place in his goals as he outlined the defense policies he would follow if elected.
With the attacks Sept. 11, Bush said Tuesday, "an illusion of immunity was shattered. A faraway evil became a present danger. And a great cause became clear: We will fight terror and those who sponsor it to save our children from a future of fear."
To win the war against terrorists, Bush said, "We have to think differently. The enemy who appeared on Sept. 11 seeks to evade our strength and constantly searches for our weaknesses. So America is required once again to change the way our military thinks and fights."
The war launched in Afghanistan against terrorists demonstrated that point, he said, serving as a proving ground for new military approaches that take advantage of high-technology weapons. These have included unmanned aircraft that can stare down on enemy territory for more than 24 hours, relaying targeting information hundreds of miles away, and precision-guided munitions that are being put to much greater use than in the Persian Gulf War a decade ago, he said.
"The enemy in Afghanistan got the first glimpses of a new American military that cannot, and will not, be evaded," Bush said. "The Taliban and the terrorists set out to dominate a country and intimidate the world. Today, from their caves, it's all looking a little different. And no cave is deep enough to escape the patient justice of the United States of America."
Before the war, skeptics questioned the usefulness of unmanned aircraft, Bush said. "Now it is clear the military does not have enough unmanned vehicles."
First Cavalry Charge of the 21st Century
The battlefield of the future, Bush continued, will be ruled by the sort of flexibility shown by U.S. special operations units, which have called in precision airstrikes directed "from horseback in the first cavalry charge of the 21st century."
Bush also said that, after years in which the focus of U.S. intelligence gathering had shifted toward technology and the spying capabilities of photographic and eavesdropping satellites, it was time to "rebuild our network of human intelligence."
"There is no substitute for good intelligence officers, people on the ground. These are the people who find the targets, follow our enemies and help us disrupt their evil plans," the president said.
Bush's specific funding recommendations for the changes he seeks in the military--and the disputes they are sure to spark in Congress--are months and, in some cases, perhaps years away.
On Capitol Hill, legislators are nearing completion of two major defense spending bills. Both take some steps toward reshaping the Pentagon, and both contain large funding increases, but neither can be called a true reform bill.
New Round of Base Closings Expected
The $343-billion defense authorization bill represents an increase of $33 billion over the amount authorized the previous year for the Defense Department and military functions of the Energy Department.
The House and Senate have agreed to increase funding for missile defense. And key legislators are close to a deal to start a new round of military base closures in 2005, a plan pushed by Rumsfeld.
The House could vote on a compromise defense authorization bill giving Bush those victories as early as Thursday.
In his speech, Bush said that another priority for the Pentagon must be to protect the nation from the threat posed by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
"Almost every state that actively sponsors terror is known to be seeking weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them at longer and longer ranges," Bush said. "Our lives, our way of life, and our every hope for the world depend on a single commitment: The authors of mass murder must be defeated and never allowed to gain or use the weapons of mass destruction."
Bush said, "A new threat to civilization is erasing old lines of rivalry and resentment between nations."
Thus, he said, Russia and the United States are cooperating to a degree unimaginable during the Cold War. And Germany and Japan, our enemies in World War II, are assuming military roles "appropriate to their status as great democracies."
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Times staff writers Nick Anderson and Ronald Brownstein in Washington contributed to this report.