Lexington, Missouri – House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) called on the next administration to work with Congress to address the national security challenges that confront America today and in the years ahead.
“No matter which Presidential candidate American voters choose in November, we need to begin planning now for the issues our country must focus on when the new President begins to govern. All areas of American policy present challenges, but the challenges in the national security arena are particularly acute and critical to the nation,” said Skelton.
“This will be the first Presidential transition to occur during a time of war in many years. In addition, the next administration will face enormous budget pressures caused by an increase in the national debt that will have nearly doubled since 2001 and a 2009 deficit that OMB currently projects will be the largest in history – $482 billion. The next administration will also face enduring and growing national security challenges that will require sustained spending and the partnership of the Congress,” said Skelton.
“In considering these matters, I have assembled a list of the top defense challenges our next President and our country must address in order to properly protect the security of the American people and to fully respect the dedicated service of our men and women in uniform and their families,” said Skelton.
Top Defense Challenges Facing a New Administration
We Must Develop a Clear Strategy to Guide National
Security Policy
Since World War II, the United States has been “the
indispensable nation”, and we stand today as the
world’s dominant economic, political, and military
power. Our nation’s ability to sustain this
leadership role is jeopardized by the absence of a
comprehensive strategy to advance U.S. interests.
Recent experience has revealed the pitfalls of taking part in
world affairs without an underlying strategic framework to
guide us. We do our country no favors by squandering
our national power, and we must not abdicate our leadership
role.
Today, no corner of the globe is too distant to be
beyond our interest. Remote places such as the Hindu
Kush are home to those who would attack us and our
allies. Regional clashes, such as the recent conflict
between Georgia and Russia, have serious ramifications for
U.S. interests, and potential flashpoints, such as the Taiwan
Strait and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would not respond
well to a world leadership vacuum.
The next President must collaborate with Congress and the
American people to formulate a new, broadly understood and
accepted strategy to advance our national security interests,
and the next Quadrennial Defense Review of the Department of
Defense must translate this strategy into a clear roadmap for
organizing the Department and setting priorities in the next
four years.
2. We Must Restore America’s Credibility in the
World
The ability to build and sustain international coalitions and
alliances will continue to be one of the central requirements
of national security policy. The full range of threats
to our national security can only be addressed through the
consistent and determined efforts of multiple nations working
together. The new President will set the tone in how we
deal with others, but our government will need to lead in
this endeavor.
The Department of Defense has recognized this fact, as shown
by Secretary Gates advocating substantial increases in
budgets and personnel for the efforts of the Department of
State and the Agency for International Development, as well
as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral
Mullen’s concept of a thousand ship navy consisting of
a loose coalition of U.S. and allied navies working together
to police the world’s oceans. Other parts of DOD
have also been focused on developing doctrine and
organizational mechanisms for improving coalition
operations.
However, the U.S. can only lead and help reinvigorate
international institutions if other nations believe we are
credible, just, and intend our efforts to serve interests
beyond our own. Thus, we must rebuild the credibility and
reputation of the United States. Achieving this will require
changes in how the United States builds and maintains
international coalitions and deals with international actors
whose interests do not always align with ours.
3. We Must Refocus our Efforts on Afghanistan
The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. Violence by
the Taliban and al Qaeda is rising, attacks against the
coalition are increasing, and safe havens in the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border region are thriving. The
genesis of the 9/11 attack was in Afghanistan and any future
attack on our homeland is likely to originate in Afghanistan
or in the border region with Pakistan.
Until our country is prepared to lead and act decisively
and persistently, it appears the problems in Afghanistan will
continue to fester. Our efforts in Iraq have diverted
resources and focus away from the war in Afghanistan.
We must re-focus our efforts and work with the international
community to provide the necessary leadership, strategy and
resources to Afghanistan to ensure success of that mission.
4. We Must Responsibly Redeploy from Iraq
The men and women of our Armed Forces have done a magnificent
job in Iraq, but we have reached the time when the citizens
of both the United States and Iraq agree that it is time for
the U.S. military to come home. Our challenge is to
manage that redeployment in such a way as to ensure that it
reduces further strain on our military without jeopardizing
the gains made in Iraq.
While we continue to protect U.S. citizens in Iraq, pursue terrorists, and help train and equip the Iraqi security forces, U.S. combat forces must be freed up to begin the process of resetting, rebuilding, and also refocusing on Afghanistan. The United States will face new challenges to our security and our interests in the future, and we will need the military units that are in Iraq to be returned to their full capability to effectively address them.
5. We Must Recruit and Retain a High-Quality Force
Our forces are the most highly-trained and educated in the
world. The dedication and professionalism of those who
serve are unsurpassed. However, there are serious challenges
that must be faced if we are to maintain the quality of the
force we have today.
While the cost for the services to recruit and retain its people has skyrocketed from $4.6 billion in Fiscal Year 2005 to $7.1 billion in Fiscal Year 2007, funding is not the only issue that will impact future recruitment and retention. The propensity of Americans to serve in uniform is significantly declining. While some decline can be attributable to the current conflicts, the number of young men and women exposed to the military experience is extremely small.
Additionally, the greatest future challenge we will face is finding qualified men and women who are willing to serve. Currently, only two of every ten young Americans are qualified, both mentally and physically. We must also ensure that our professional military schools, in particular our war colleges, are the finest in the world.
6. We Must Ensure a High State of Readiness for Our
Forces
Our troops have been engaged in combat operations for nearly
seven years, and it has strained our military to the breaking
point. The toll of repeated deployments has worn out
our troops and equipment and left us ill-prepared to respond
to any future crises that may arise. Shortfalls of
personnel, equipment and training are affecting all of our
services, but the ground forces are showing the most serious
strain. The cost to reset the equipment for our ground
forces alone could easily exceed $100 billion. We must
focus our resources to find the right balance between near
term needs and the long term health of our military to
minimize the strategic risk now facing this
country.
Restoring readiness will take a significant investment of time and money, but it must be done if we are to expect our military to respond ably when we need them. We are already at risk. Either we fix our readiness problems immediately or else risk emboldening those who would seek to do us harm.
7. We Must Develop a More Comprehensive
Counter-Terrorism Strategy
With al Qaeda and affiliated groups still presenting a major
threat, the United States must apply “lessons
learned” more comprehensively and be open to the advice
of our allies fighting the same struggle if we are to
effectively counter this persistent threat. The key is
to fight “smarter”—not necessarily
“harder”—by more effectively utilizing a
range of tools beyond just the military-led, kinetic
approaches to counterterrorism.
That means the new administration must more aggressively
pursue strategic communications strategies, intelligence and
policing work, targeted development assistance, and a range
of other counterinsurgency and irregular warfare
tools. Supporting a more comprehensive counter-terrorism
and counter-insurgency strategy will require significant
investment – an estimated $2 billion – in both
Special Operations Command and irregular and unconventional
warfare initiatives.
8. We Must Strike a Balance between Near-Term Fixes
and Long-Term Modernization
The military services have been engaged in peacekeeping,
disaster relief, humanitarian, and warfighting missions for
nearly two decades, at operational tempos far in excess of
planned rates. Failure to adequately modernize air,
naval, and ground force equipment; growing costs and schedule
delays in acquisition programs; and significant increases in
active duty and retired personnel pay, benefit, and
healthcare costs have resulted in an inventory of aged,
stressed equipment that must be repaired and replaced, while
the services continue to meet personnel costs and the demands
of on-going operations.
At the same time the industrial base supporting military
programs has dramatically changed through industry
consolidation and contraction. Without funding in the coming
decade, production lines will irreversibly close and skilled
workforces will age or retire.
Each of the military services will have to address the
fundamental imbalances in their current plans to
simultaneously modernize and reset equipment, grow the number
of ships in our Navy, increase the numbers in the Army and
Marine Corps, fulfill BRAC requirements, improve the quality
of the reserve forces, and support a range of personnel pay
and health benefits. The next administration must determine
whether the dramatic budget increases these plans require are
achievable, and must establish the priorities required to
revise them if funding is insufficient.
9. We Must Reform the Inter-Agency Process to
Leverage All Our Tools of National Power
America is not bringing the full abilities of our nation to
bear on national security challenges. Both the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan have demanded expertise in building
nations, expertise that is largely resident in agencies other
than the Department of Defense. We must reform the
inter-agency system to bring the capabilities of many
agencies to bear on all aspects of national security
challenges – from policy formulation to building the
governmental capacity of nations and eliminating the
ungoverned spaces in which terrorists find refuge. The
Department of Defense properly focuses on providing the
incredible military forces that protect our national
interests, but those forces are not the right answer to every
problem. The State Department and other agencies must
play a more significant role in national security.
10. We Must Deal with the Looming Defense Health Care
Crisis
Challenges in the healthcare system are nothing new. The
civilian sector is facing similar issues, but the defense
health program faces unique challenges compared to the
civilian sector that will need to be addressed in order to
support our nation’s future security. There is a
perfect storm brewing, and in the next few years, that storm
will be upon us.
Defense health care costs are expected to grow exponentially
over the next several years. In FY01, the defense health
budget was $19 billion, in 2008 the budget for health care
benefits and services is $40.5 billion. By 2015, the
health budget is expected to rise to $64 billion, assuming a
health care inflation rate of 6 percent.
Recruitment and retention of qualified medical professionals continues to be a challenge, especially when individuals with the necessary medical skills to support our troops could make significantly more money outside of the military and not face the challenges of a military lifestyle. The incentives necessary to recruit and retain these qualified medical professionals will only continue to increase.
In addition to the shortage in medical professionals, there will also be an overwhelming demand placed on the medical system as it attempts to support thousands of men and women returning from combat, as well as their families. The current system is near the breaking point. Wounded warriors are waiting for care – especially mental health care, and family members are being told to wait as these troops return home. The demands on the system will only increase.
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