BUREAUCRACY LOVES COMPANY:

Will a Larger Military Mean Lower Standards? (Robert Haddick : 16 Jan 2007, Tech Central Station)

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld worked strenuously to avoid the very announcement Mr. Gates made last week. Mr. Rumsfeld hoped that "transformation" would reduce the number of soldiers required to achieve battlefield effects that previously required vast hordes to accomplish. Technology, as exemplified by the Army's Future Combat System, is only part of the transformation story. The Marine Corps's "distributed operations" concept will achieve immense effects on the battlefield, with platoons doing the work of battalions and companies doing the work of regiments. Under distributed operations, the Marine Corps will reorganize its infantry battalions to allow sergeants and lieutenants to lead wide-ranging patrols deep through enemy terrain. A battalion commander previously maneuvered with three rifle companies. Under distributed operations, that battalion commander will employ a dozen to 30 or more mobile, elite teams to find the enemy, direct airpower, or mass for attack. Small unit leaders will be given unprecedented authority and responsibility. However, the Marine Corps requires only the best recruits, trainable to elite standards, to make distributed operations a reality.

Mr. Gates is leading in the wrong direction. Rather than reinforcing failure, what the U.S. government should be learning from Iraq is a new way to fight its wars. Instead of using massed legacy American forces, the U.S. should move to a model that employs highly-trained U.S. teams either working in a distributed fashion to identify enemy targets, or as advisors to local allies and proxies.

This was where Mr. Rumsfeld was driving. Now Mr. Gates is steering the Defense Department off the road. Instead of being allowed to develop high quality recruits into elite warriors prepared for a complex battlefield, Mr. Gates is going to dump more marginal misfits on the sergeants and lieutenants. Let's hope someone can stop this ride before it ends up in the ditch.