Exactly What We Don't Need (One More edition)

[This is crossposted from Blue Girl, Red State. The item was originally posted by Pale Rider and was updated throughout the morning by both of us. It is my considered opinion that his is the biggest story of the week, but it is also right smack in the middle of the closest thing I have to an area of expertise, so I'm not exactly objective.]

I guess you just need to expect incompetence from these people...

MSNBC BREAKING NEWS
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it mistakenly shipped non-nuclear ballistic missile components to Taiwan from a U.S. Air Force base in Wyoming.
It said the items have been returned to the United States.
At a news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said that the misshipped items were four nose cone assemblies for ballistic missiles. He also said it was sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan, he said.
Wynne said the matter is under investigation.
Ryan Henry, the No. 2 policy official in the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said President Bush was notified of the mistake and the actions to recover the items. Henry called the mistake "disconcerting" and intolerable.

So, now the question is this: given that the Air Force has now shipped nuclear weapons across the country without properly accounting for them, and given this latest slip-up, who's being fired?

Shouldn't Gates just be wholesale cashiered on this one, to reassure the Chinese that we're serious about looking for accountability on this matter? I'm thinking that if we fired Gates, Wynne and a few others, that might do the trick.

Don't hold your breath.

Update I - Blue Girl - 10:20 central

It is time for the House and Senate Armed Services committees to call for and demand a global stand-down of the Air Force. The errors that are happening are too frequent and too egregious and the incompetence of the godboys at the top represents a clear and immediate threat to the national security. When the next president takes over, the Air Force needs a top to bottom evaluation, and a whole bunch of retirements need to be forced, and reviewed. Some of the incompetents with eagles and stars on their collars need to be retired as O-3's by congress. We take this all very personally in this household. We gave the Air Force the best years of our lives. We want to be proud of that again.

UPDATE II - PALE RIDER

Oh, NOW YOU TELL US!!!

At a Pentagon news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the misshipped items were four electrical fuses for nose cone assemblies for ICBMs. He also said they were delivered to Taiwan in 2006 and had been sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan.

The fuses were manufactured for use on a Minuteman strategic nuclear missile but contain no nuclear materials.

"This could not be construed as being nuclear material. It is a component for the fuse in the nosecone for a nuclear system," Wynne said. "We are very concerned about it."

Wynne said the matter is under investigation. He said the Taiwanese authorities notified U.S. officials of the mistake. He said the fuses had been in a shipping container sent from one U.S. Air Force base to another in 2005 and then delivered to Taiwan in 2006.

Well, I guess that's okay then! It happened several years ago! No big deal! Nothing like disclosing these kinds of things in a timely fashion, huh?

UPDATE III - Blue Girl - 11:00 AM

Without saying anything that I shouldn't - my husband spent his career working on electronics systems of ICBMs, so please believe me when I tell you this...it isn't about the nuclear material, and stressing that fissibles were not compromised, move along, nothing to see here...is a headfake.

These fuses are not what civilians think of when they hear the word "fuse." They are top-secret components in the electrical systems of ICBMs. The warhead is the easy part of a missile system. The hard part is the delivery vehicle - you don't deliver a nuclear payload by oxcart, you know. Compromising the electronics is possibly providing the final piece of information to a rogue state like North Korea that is openly developing missile technology to allow them to finally have a weapon that will reach the west coast. This is a big god-damned deal, and careers need to end over it.

UPDATE IV - Blue Girl - 11:30 AM

I just got off the phone. I called the Armed Services committee of both chambers (House: 202-225-4151. Senate 202-224-3871.) I was very respectful, but I also got my point across, that I am not a hysterical housewife obsessing over cable news - or at least not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, hysterical housewife, anyway. That was dispelled when I gave them my husbands name, rank, dates of service, and ELAB AFSC.

Both of the staffers I spoke with were very polite and extremely concerned about this incident. They understood that it isn't about the fissibles, it's about the delivery vehicle. When I said the Air Force needed to stand down globally, the SASC staffer said "I can assure you something will come of this."

I am taking him at his word, as Senator Levin's proxy, but I will be watching just the same.

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Alienating our Allies

It isn't like we have a whole lot of them left, so Bob Gates slur against our NATO allies in Afghanistan is not only troubling, it is, frankly, stupid. Which also troubles me - Gates is not a stupid fellow. I have never been a fan, but at least I grudgingly respected his competence and talent - but then he said this:

“I’m worried we’re deploying [military advisers] that are not properly trained, and I’m worried we have some military forces that don’t know how to do counter-insurgency operations.”

Now I can make with the scorn and ridicule without a second thought.

In case you missed it, Gates blasted the Brits and other NATO member states fighting in Afghanistan by saying in an interview that the allies lack of experience in counter-insurgency warfare was contributing to the escalating violence and instability in the south of that beleaguered nation, and contributing to the rise of the Taliban. (Perhaps he has forgotten that the Brits are the only country to actually win a counterinsurgency? Malaysia in the 50's, anyone?)

[Keep reading...]

His remarks drew sharp criticism and instant reactions from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, the three countries that have born the brunt in the south. The Dutch were particularly incensed.

The Dutch were so angry at what appeared to be direct criticism that they summoned the US Ambassador in The Hague to explain Mr Gates’s comments. British and Dutch officials refused to believe that the criticism was directed at them, but Eric Adelman, the US Assistant Secretary of Defence, nonetheless had to ring around Nato capitals to give reassurance that Mr Gates was not attacking any individual member.

[snip]

As officials tried to smooth over the apparent rift, his comments drew a fierce response. Patrick Mercer, a Conservative MP and a former British Army officer, said they were “bloody outrageous”. He said: “I would beg the Americans to understand that we are their closest allies, and our men are bleeding and dying in large numbers.”

Britain has 7,800 troops in southern Afghanistan, where 81 have been killed. The Dutch and the Canadians have also lost a substantial number of soldiers in counter-insurgency operations against the Taleban.

So what's the deal here? Remember that Gates, at his very core, is an ideologue. Is he making such unhinged and offensive comments now because he knows that a year from now there will be a Democratic President with Democratic majorities in both houses? Is he undermining relations now in advance of that eventuality because he wants to make it as difficult as it can possibly be for the next president?

Petulant fuck.

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Making the mercenaries answer to the military

The Department of Defense and the State Department finalized an agreement on Wednesday that gives the military authority over all of the State Department security contractors mercenaries that operate in Iraq.

This turn of events was precipitated by a bloody, murderous rampage in Nisour Square in Baghdad on September 16 that left 17 civilians dead and several more wounded. Blackwater insisted their thugs personnel were under attack, but the forensics put the lie to those claims.

U.S. military commanders have complained long and loud, since the earliest days of the invasion, about the cowboys in the Ray-Bans who shoot first and don't even stick around to ask any questions later. The cowboys move about the battle space, and don't bother to tell the military that they are on the move. They undermine the mission (whatever it is this week) and they aggravate the situation and aggrieve the locals.

Let's make sure to give credit where credit is due: Bob Gates started moving pieces around the board immediately after the unprovoked attack, attempting to get the "contractors" under control. I've said this before and I'll probably say it again about Gates: I don't like the man, but I respect the talent. Sometimes, I can almost admire the old prick. Almost...

[Thats all, folks...]

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Making the Mercenaries Accountable

It is starting to look like Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is leaning heavily toward taking strident steps toward bringing all armed “security personnel” (read: mercenaries) under single authority, most likely the U.S. military, no matter what branch of government they are contracting with.

Currently, there are approximately 10,000 armed mercenaries running around Iraq, under contract to various branches of the United States government and NGOs. I know it sounds bizarre, but there is no central oversight authority to which they must answer.

Pragmatically, it just makes sense to bring all armed civilians who are under contract to American government agencies and NGOs, as well as the American military under one authority. It would mean, effectively, that those armed civilians would no longer have multiple bosses at multiple levels and a disparate set of rules. Pentagon officials say it would allow for better coordination and communications between the American military and the private security personnel.

When contractors get in trouble, they call on the US military to bail them out. Fully 30% of the incidents in which the military was called on to save mercenary bacon involved movements and convoys that the military was not even aware had mobilized.

[keep reading]

American commanders often perceive the private security personnel in an adversarial light. Civilian casualties, victims of mercenary gunfire, infuriate the Iraqi government and damage the American perception and image among the locals. This frustrates military officers who say the heavy-handed, shoot-first-and-don’t-even-bother-to-ask-questions-later tactics by mercenaries undermine the broader mission.

As details of the Blackwater shootings have emerged in recent weeks, Mr. Gates has signaled his unease with the existing command and legal authorities governing security contractors.

“Do we have the mechanisms and the means for our commanders to exercise a kind of strategic oversight and assure accountability in terms of the behavior and the conduct of these security contractors?” Mr. Gates asked at the Pentagon on Sept. 27.

“It’s very important that we do everything in our power to make sure that people who are under contract to us are not only abiding by our rules, but are conducting themselves in a way that makes them an asset in this war in Iraq and not a liability,” he added.

Gates is said to feel very strongly about the need to rein in the armed civilians that run around the country and frequently run amok and murder civilians, to the point that he has expressed a willingness to go directly to the president if necessary. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said Mr. Gates “has made clear that he supports his commanders’ assertions that, at the very least, they need greater visibility on the work and movements of armed security contractors in Iraq.”

Gates has been told by senior military commanders in Iraq that there must be a single chain of command, providing oversight for all contract personnel. The commanders argue that the military is the best positioned entity to provide that oversight authority.

No formal proposals have been made, but when they are, they are expected to meet resistance from the State Department, which, while acknowledging that there is a problem, wants to retain authority over their own contract employees.

Gates and Rice enjoy a better relationship than Rumsfeld and Rice did, and Gates is holding off on making sweeping pronouncements and proclamations until he has a chance to sit down face-to-face and discuss the matter with the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor.

But one thing is certain...the issue of contractors and accountability is not going to go away, and there will be oversight.

And it's about damned time, too.

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Pace is Out at Joint Chiefs

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced today that he would not seek to have General Peter Pace to remain on as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after his current term expires in September.

"I concluded that because Gen. Pace has served as chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the last six years, the focus of his confirmation process would have been on the past rather than the future," Gates said. "There was the very real prospect the process would be quite contentious," he said. "A divisive ordeal at this point is not in the interest of the country."

I’m sure that he would have a hard time being reconfirmed. First he stuck his foot in his mouth about gays in the military, then he wrote that love-letter for Libby.

Goodbye, and might I add, good riddance. Would that Congress had the power to reduce your damned rank and retire you a Lt. Colonel.


[Cross-posted from Blue Girl, Red State]

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A “War Czar” has been chosen

The White House today announced the appointment of Lt. General Douglas Lute to the position of Director of Operations for the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lt. General Lute was a featured speaker at a breakfast hosted by the Association of the United States Army Institute of Land Warfare breakfast earlier in the week. Some of the things he said make way too much sense for a Bush appointment.

You be the judge. (From the AUSA Website).

AUSA Hosts Several key Committee Staffers

AUSA hosted several key congressional staff members at the Institute of Land Warfare breakfast this week. Addressing the group was LTG Douglas Lute, the director for operations, J-3, for the Joint Staff.

LTG Lute described the U.S. military and the global war on terror by saying, “We have a hammer but the problem is not a series of nails.” He also said that al Qaeda fights by using loosely connected cells around the world and educating its followers on the internet to achieve its goal of reestablishing the Caliphate—a geographic area under Muslim rule and governed by Islamic law.
The enemy has found a safe haven on the internet, which, according to Lute, they use “better than we do.” Instructions can be found on the internet o n how to build bomb vests and how to cross Syria into Iraq. All these things can be found “on the internet today. It is the greatest safe haven they use against us.”

Some of the lessons learned, Lute explained are that joint warfighting is one of the keys to winning. Fighting with allies and local people and understanding their culture and language are powerful weapons. In addition, firepower and maneuver are not as important as timing and precision. “We have the world’s best Army,” Lute explained, “but we don’t have ‘find and fix.’” The enemy, he said, has excellent intelligence gathering while the United States relies on intelligence almost solely from prisoners.

The war on terror, Lute warned, could last fifteen to sixteen years. Nor would it be a decisive victory. “We’re not going to see the win in the newspapers, there will be no V-J (Japan) Day.” Instead, he explain ed, the ideology we fight can be suppressed but not eradicated. Also, the military alone cannot deliver victory and, in the end, countries around the world will not offer us gratitude, but respect.

I am not of the opinion that adding another level to the metric will change anything or salvage the unsalvageable, but I am at least not mortified by their choice, which is frankly far and away better than I expected. He sure is saying the right things.

For the record, I will never be a fan of Bob Gates, but I think I see his fingerprints on this choice, and if so, he’s making it hard to maintain the level of loathing for him that I have had for at least 20 freakin’ years.

Also, it does not escape my notice that this transpired while Dick "use the Military to open a soda" Cheney was out of the country.

[Cross-posted from Blue Girl, Red State]

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With Kiley gone, the fate of a task force is in limbo

Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Monday, stating their concerns that the Defense Department’s Mental Health Task Force report due in June will be delayed in the wake of the resignation of Army Surgeon General Kevin Kiley; a valid concern as Kiley was the co-chair of the task force. He was forced into retirement earlier in the month because he was the General Officer who let Walter Reed happen on his watch.

The task force in question was created from legislation written by Senator Boxer, and is supposed to deliver a report to Secretary Gates in May. It was announced today that Surgeon General of the Navy, Vice Admiral Donald Arthur, has been nominated to replace Kiley on the investigative body.

The panel was created to assess strategies for assuring the delivery of mental health services to all veterans who need them, especially the veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many veterans have lost their driving privileges because of traumatic brain injuries the have resulted in seizure disorders (NPR did a piece last week on just such a case.) Or they have physical limitations that they have not yet overcome to the point they can resume driving. Some are just so wracked with PTSD that they don’t or won’t drive.

Too many have lost their vehicles to repossession while they wait for benefits to start.

“We are concerned that his departure could delay the completion of the task force report.” They wrote. “Service members cannot be forced to wait for care because of a shortage of mental health providers. Tragedies have occurred because service members did not receive the care they needed.”

The Senators raised explicit concerns about veterans in rural areas where services are not readily available and VA centers might be hours away. For whatever reason, if a Veteran can’t get to the services, the services need to get to him. Or her. Period. There is simply no discussion to engage in on that topic.

They also wrote about the need for pre and post deployment mental health screenings, comprehensive education about mental health issues such as depression and PTSD, and the need to take steps to eliminate the stigma associated with seeking mental health services that some members of the military have expressed. (If I made the rules, discrimination against and the hazing of those returning from combat with readjustment issues would be a career ender and a pension forfeiture.)

The task force should not let the sacking of Kiley sideline them. They should continue working, and the confirmation process for Admiral Arthur should move quickly and, if he is suitable, confirm him promptly.

The issues faced by our veterans – who have really gotten a lousy shake all the way around – will continue to need services they are not getting. God knows that the US government is not going to do anything on spec and suddenly start taking care of the Veterans and war wounded they have created.

No, that requires an official report from a task force; signed by all members, notarized and in triplicate.

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