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投稿者 某教会系新聞 日時 2001 年 5 月 08 日 10:24:53:
回答先: 米「二正面作戦」放棄へ Ｗポスト報道 兵力削減、東アジアに重点 投稿者 ３Ｋ 日時 2001 年 5 月 08 日 10:20:57:
Pentagon Plans Major Changes in U.S. Strategy
Rumsfeld Envisions Shift In Size, Focus of Military
By Thomas E. Ricks and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 7, 2001; Page A01
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is set to unveil sweeping changes in U.S. military strategy, including the
formal abandonment of the "two major war" yardstick that for a decade has been used to determine the size of the
military, Pentagon officials said yesterday.
Rumsfeld is scheduled to meet with President Bush this week, probably Wednesday, to seek final approval for the
new U.S. strategy, which appears to involve some of the biggest changes in the U.S. military in a decade. Next week,
he is to roll out the strategy publicly, perhaps with a White House announcement followed by congressional
testimony, the officials said. The two-week campaign on defense issues will culminate May 25 with an address by
Bush at the Naval Academy, which will present "the vision of where we need to go as we move into the 21st
century," a Pentagon official said yesterday.
Putting aside the "two major war" approach is more a matter of the size of the military than of planning for war.
For about a decade, the military has used the possibility of having to fight wars in two places -- Korea and Iraq
are the two examples frequently used -- to figure out the minimum number of troops, airplanes, ships and gear
needed. Among other things, abandoning the approach will remove a floor that for years has kept the active-duty
military at about 1.4 million people.
Defense officials were guarded about describing what will replace the two-war yardstick. One of those involved in
the strategy discussion said that the military should instead make sure it has capabilities to deal with a
fast-changing world. This formulation puts less emphasis on preparing for conventional warfare and more on
handling murkier situations such as defending Taiwan from a Chinese blockade or keeping open the Strait of
Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Cutting personnel also would free up money for the new weapons
Rumsfeld wants to buy.
The change in approach promises to affect all the services but appears to have the gravest implications for the
Army, the most manpower-intensive service in wartime. The strategy also says the U.S. military needs to focus
less on Europe, traditionally the Army's bailiwick, and more on East Asia. The latter, because of its long distances
and island nations, has been seen as more of a theater for the Navy and Air Force. It also says the military needs to
do a better job of assimilating new information-age technologies and of countering the proliferation of missiles
in the Third World.
Only after the overarching strategy is presented will Rumsfeld engage Congress on boosting the defense budget,
the official added. "Everyone wants to get the numbers, but you have to do the strategy fi
rst, so you have the
philosophical underpinning before you start spending money," he said.
But behind the scenes, administration officials already are grappling with three defense budgets simultaneously.
They are preparing to ask for a supplement for current spending and also for an amendment to the proposed fiscal
2002 budget before Congress. Additionally, in the coming weeks, Rumsfeld will give the armed services broad
guidance that will enable them to begin preparing their fiscal 2003 budgets.
� The Pentagon is expected to ask for approximately $6 billion to $8 billion to supplement current spending of
about $296 billion, officials said, with most of the new funds going to readiness and military health care costs.
Without a multibillion-dollar supplemental, a congressional source said, "flying hours and [Navy] steaming hours
and other essential training missions will have to be curtailed" from July through September, the last quarter of
the federal fiscal year.
Rumsfeld said yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the size of the supplemental is "open" and that he would be
"discussing that over the coming week" with Bush.
� The administration is also planning for even bigger increases in the coming years as the Defense Department
moves toward the changes Rumsfeld envisions. It isn't clear how those increases will be paid for as the
administration also is seeking a huge tax cut and other budget changes.
Officials say the administration is preparing a huge amendment to the defense budget for fiscal 2002, which
begins Oct. 1. The administration's "placeholder" budget submitted earlier this year sought $310.5 billion. The
amendment is expected to boost that by about $20 billion. This will be presented as "the get-well budget" that
prepares the military establishment for the sweeping reforms Bush and Rumsfeld have promised, another Pentagon
official said last week.
� Finally, the 2003 budget will aim to implement major changes in the size, shape and use of the U.S. military,
officials said. This is the budget in which the agenda for radical military reform that Bush laid out during the
presidential campaign would take hold.
"It's being called 'the transformation budget,' " a military officer said last week. It is expected to be one of the
most controversial defense budgets ever, and already is provoking anxiety and bitterness in the uniformed
military.
Although the 2003 budget wouldn't go into effect until 18 months from now, the armed services will begin
drafting it this summer, then negotiate their numbers with Rumsfeld through the fall and with the White House
around the end of the year.
The 2003 budget also will be the one that begins to "pay for missile defense," another Pentagon official said last
week. That remains a large but unknown price tag. Rumsfeld indicated yesterday on CBS's "Face the Nation" that he
wants to fund research in possible missile def
ense systems ranging from sea-based interception to airborne
lasers. "All of those things need to be looked at," he said. "We need to look at the use of sea; we need to look at the
use of an airborne system and a space sensor."
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz added on CNN's "Late Edition" that the missile defense costs wouldn't
be known until more research is done. He indicated he thought sea-based missile defenses, which would be
intended to knock down a missile as it is struggling against gravity and so is most vulnerable, would receive the
most emphasis.
Many in the top brass worry that Rumsfeld is going to spend so much on missile defense and his other priorities --
operations in space and intelligence-gathering -- that their own weapons programs will suffer. Those fears have
been stoked by Rumsfeld's secretive approach to defense reform, with little information being shared with
uniformed military.
"It clearly has alarmed the services," said historian Williamson Murray, who recently briefed Pentagon officials on
military innovation, his area of expertise. "I heard a huge amount of squealing."
There is much confusion about what Rumsfeld actually will recommend. He appointed about 20 panels to look at
everything from what weapons not to buy to how to change personnel policy to how nuclear weapons are
commanded and controlled. Some of those panels have made recommendations that contradict each other.
Rumsfeld said at a recent Pentagon meeting that he plans to "cherry pick" from those recommendations, two
Pentagon officials said yesterday, keeping only the parts that fit into the larger strategy he is now ready to
unveil.
2001 The Washington Post Company
題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。