By Charles A. Radin
The Boston Globe, 12 April 2006
The United States has made major changes in the way it trains and organizes the Army in response to difficulties encountered in Iraq after the end of conventional warfare there, Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey said yesterday.
But, in an interview with Globe editors and reporters, Harvey also insisted that the problems in Iraq and the changes of which he spoke were not caused by errors of US military or civilian leaders. He stoutly defended Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld against recent calls from retired generals that Rumsfeld resign because of his errors in planning and conducting the invasion and occupation.
War plans ''are a series of actions that you think will work and be effective, but they are really points of departure," Harvey said. ''Did we anticipate an insurgency that would be this strong? No, we didn't anticipate that. . . . What happens is, you plan an operation, it doesn't go exactly as planned, you change, you morph" in reaction to developments.
Harvey, who was deeply involved in weapons development during a long executive career at Westinghouse Corp., said he disagreed fundamentally with the retired generals.
''They are entitled to their opinions," he said. ''I do note that the longer you are out of [the Pentagon] the farther you are from the current flow of information. This issue of enough troops or not enough troops is going to be debated for years. . . . This thing is going to go on forever. . . . But when people say the military didn't have a say, they just don't know what they are talking about."
Partly in response to the Iraq experience, Harvey said, the Army is reorganizing its core of fighters into 70 brigade combat teams of 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers that are self-sufficient, quickly deployable, and have broader capabilities than larger and more specialized units that previously were prevalent. These combat brigades will be backed by about 200 support brigades.
Harvey called it ''the largest redesign of the operational Army since before World War II."
He said 48 of the new units -- 33 in the regular Army and 15 in the National Guard -- have been created so far. Of these, he said, 18 or 19 are stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
In addition to restructuring the forces, Harvey said, the Army upgraded the armor on 40,000 vehicles, made available to the troops 700,000 new sets of body armor, and greatly improved its capability to detect and counter the improvised explosive devices that are among the main killers of US troops in Iraq.
''All that is being done in response to the type of war that's being fought," Harvey said. ''We can get into a whole polemic of 'you shoulda known, you shoulda, you shoulda, you shoulda.' Well, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't. [But] once it was clear the nature of this irregular warfare, the Army did a remarkable job changing training, equipment, and organization and now we are better aligned with the realities of the 21st century."
Harvey disputed assertions of some former military leaders and other analysts that large troop commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan have reduced the US capacity to respond to crises elsewhere, saying that the active-duty, retraining, and ready-reserve cycle established for the new brigades allows US commanders to produce surges in troop strength quickly.
Rebutting reports that the Army's ability to recruit and retain soldiers has been reduced by the difficult Iraq experience, he said that the number of Army recruits signed up last year roughly equaled the average recruited annually during the last decade, even though the total was 7,000 short of the 80,000-recruit goal the Army had set.
He said he was unconcerned with dismissals of soldiers who violate the don't ask-don't tell policy toward gays in the military because the numbers of those dismissed were insignificant. On average, about 350 a year are dismissed, compared with 170,000 who are recruited to the Army, National Guard, and Army Reserves.
Harvey also said that, regardless of the current political debate over the torture of prisoners, the Army has consistently trained soldiers to obey the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions, and has prosecuted violators.
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Citation: Charles A. Radin. "Army revamping training, structure," The Boston Globe, 12 April 2006.
Original URL: http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/04/12/army_revamping_training_structure/
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