The U.S. Air Force Declares War! (On the Army, the Marines, and the Navy)
Good to know that with the U.S. locked into two ground battles with Islamist insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Air Force doesn't take its eye off the ball: the budget. Abu Muqawama apologizes for the language, but honestly, what assholes. Here we were, thinking "strategic communication" meant the effort to win hearts and minds. Apparently it does, but those "hearts and minds" belong to Congressmen and defense contractors. (Click image to enlarge, and, if you have relatives who deployed to Iraq without proper body armor, prepare to be sickened by the winner-takes-all sentiment you encounter.)
There is just so much going on here, but following the USAF's unique understanding of strategic communication, how about let's start with the phrase "Returning the Air Force to Prominence in the National Security Arena." Well now there's a worthy goal! Throw out your copies of Clausewitz, because apparently national defense institutions have a new, more noble purpose: to ensure their own success in winning a slice of the budget. What really matters is not defeating the enemy fighting force or accomplishing policy objectives through the application of force but rather making sure that your branch is most favored in the Department of Defense budget.
Jesus Nuts, we deserve to lose every war we fight. Some guys living in caves in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas or sleeping on the floors of apartments in Baghdad and Karachi are laughing their asses off right now.
Update: Abu Muqawama should have mentioned, as one of his readers did, that the flyer spoke of the "Budget Battle" being a "Zero Sum Gain." Whatever the hell that is. We can guess, anyway, what they mean. Somehow, Bill Chambers rose to be a Major General in the U.S. Air Force. It certainly wasn't due to his mastery of the English Language. Or by being a team player.
Update II: Small Wars Journal saw this too. And one reader complains the U.S. Army has used its Iraq and Afghanistan needs to push through funding for the FCS. Which, if true, is a fair criticism of the Army.
Update III: Cross-posted at Danger Room.
Update IV: More snark from Spencer.
16 comments:
I wonder if my pal Major General Chuck Dunlap has anything to say about this.
His views on the AF role in the COIN fight come into even sharper focus.
Trolls.
"Zero Sum Gain" should be "Zero Sum Game", which means that, as in poker, the sums won by one player are lost by another.
You'd think that a service that did threat analysis on the Army and Marines--who are actually fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--would at least get the metaphor for their budget analysis correct.
Someone should be testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee for this one.
Yeah, I saw that too. Honestly, though, I was too incensed by the sentiment to take them to task for failing to know the name of the retarded mentality they express.
I think Zero Sum Gain is actually a pretty precise description of the process: The Sum gained by all participants in this kind of process equals Zero. As an aside, what happened to the restructuring of the quartermaster/supply branch announced half a year ago? That seemed like another "lets keep them fighting each other so they dont unify against the top-brass/politicos" maneuver.
Well I feel like an asshole now. The chAir Force needs to remember one thing, we SUPPORT everyone else. I am even more ashamed of being an Airman now more than ever after I read this.
I'm not sure what you're saying with this post. Is it to suggest that the Navy and Army do not view Congressional budget battles as service competition? If so, then perhaps you haven't been paying attention. The Army is, to use Washington-speak, "leveraging" the "GWOT" to "achieve" the "realization" of "FCS." So the Army is using these wars to justify funding for all the toys it wants too. It's good to know the Army strategic communication people are working hard for the the guys in the field up there on the hill! If there really is still a lack of body armor what does that say about Army priorities?
Fnord..you nailed it. It is accurate. It may be (Inshallah) a Freudian slip. Ah, the conscience always slips through.
As long as there's so much money on the table this is unavoidable. We are not above human nature.
Jesus Christ, I'm almost speechless.
But since I'm me, not quite speechless. Here's what I think everyone is missing in the discussion. Look at what the document points out as the "problems" with the Army and the Navy: the Army's current GWOT and the Navy's new Maritime Strategy. Guess what the USAF doesn't have right now...a clearly articulated purpose or strategy.
What the USAF brass don't seem to understand is that until you figure out exactly what it is you do, all the schmoozing with defense contractors and budget wars on the other services aren't going to matter a damn.
And no, in case any of them are reading, AFDD 2-3 does not count as a strategic purpose. It's a start in the same way that me going to my mom's piano when I was 2 and pounding on the keys was a start to me learning how to play Chopin.
What Mike said.
To anon, sure, all the services play this game. The Army in particular is keenly aware that if it does not engage, it will certainly lose ground to the high-tech AF and Navy toy programs. But it's pretty odious to see a two-star GO putting it in an official PPT presentation.
Look at what the document points out as the "problems" with the Army and the Navy: the Army's current GWOT and the Navy's new Maritime Strategy. Guess what the USAF doesn't have right now...a clearly articulated purpose or strategy.
Here's what the Air Force defines as a strategy:
1. In every conflict, you need air superiority.
2. To remain the sole superpower, we need to maintain a big nuclear arsenal.
It almost as if the USAF is researching its positions by playing Risk and Axis and Allies. ("Look, we need planes! And lots of them!")
tomgrant: don't forget Tom Clancy. I think he was the puppetmaster behind Oberstfurher Rumsfeld.
Regarding what Anonymous said, "The Army is, to use Washington-speak, "leveraging" the "GWOT" to "achieve" the "realization" of "FCS." So the Army is using these wars to justify funding for all the toys it wants too."
FCS is not a toy. It's the most comprehensive modernization of the Army in a generation. As far as "leveraging" GWOT, what the Army has done is analyze all of the Operational Needs Statements that have come out of both Iraq and Afghanistan and match them to the key performance parameters of the FCS program. The result is that what the Soldiers in the field are asking for is precisely what the Army is doing with FCS.
Armywonk,
Well, that's the rub isn't it? What one service views as meeting critical "performance parameters" other services and those with agendas may not. You could take what you wrote, change the name of the program and service around and it would be just as valid.
If this PPT thing is real, it really is an egregious example of the pentagon budget battle and should be condemned for the language and the way it characterizes the competition, but don't be fooled into thinking such attitudes do not exist in the other services.
tomgrant, give some warning before you unload one of those. My computer is lucky I wasn't drinking anything when I read that.
Risk and Axis and Allies, indeed.
Something also worth noting is that apparently the USAF had asked the USN for help regarding the formulation of a strategy. Say what you will about it, but the USN's new Maritime Strategy is how this sort of thing is supposed to be done. Lay out a direction and purpose for the service and THEN worry about force structure and requirements. Apparently this is the thanks the USN gets for its help.
"What the USAF brass don't seem to understand is that until you figure out exactly what it is you do, all the schmoozing with defense contractors and budget wars on the other services aren't going to matter a damn. "
Oh no, it's worth billions. They've been getting sweet, sweet cash year in and year out for decades, despite what they do.
Barry
Yeah Barry is right. Money and/or a job for life (with built in cash it in after your 20) is the actual mission for far too many of us. We the ranks need to wake up.
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