Article

September 2003

Washington Pulse

by Geoff S. Fein

Military Overstretched, Sen. Hagel Warns
With a $450 billion budget deficit, extended operations in Iraq, possible intervention in Liberia and the continuing crisis with North Korea, the United States is confronting a situation comparable to the post-World War II era, said Sen. Chuck Hagel, D-Neb.

“We’re living in a very historic time,” where trust and credibility are paramount as “we are shaping and framing the world for many years to come,” he told a Washington, D.C., defense industry conference.

The United States may be overstretching itself, he said. “Great nations must learn that they have limitations.” The arrogance of American policy is taking a toll on the nation’s military forces, he added. “Purpose must be connected to our power.”

Of particular concern are the thousands of reservists and National Guardsmen who have been on active duty in the Middle East, in many cases, for more than 18 months. These are “dangerous signs that we have to recognize,” Hagel said. There is going to be a major recruiting problem, something Washington has failed to address so far. A military force of 1.4 million, “is not enough to do everything we want to do,” he said.

Extended military operations also are draining resources from domestic priorities, therefore “short changing” Americans when it comes to programs like Medicare and education, Hagel said. Americans should not have to sacrifice basic government benefits, just because the United States wants to “take on the burden of the world,” he argued.

Navy Seeks Increased International Cooperation
The Navy International Programs Office is courting various countries to participate in joint projects. The service is seeking more international cooperation in areas such as unmanned undersea vehicles, maritime missile defense and ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) systems.

The Navy is interested particularly in garnering international interest in the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) and the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) programs, which are designed to replace the P-3 Orion surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft, officials said. Invited partners for both programs include Australia, Canada, Portugal, Norway, the Netherlands, South Korea and Japan.

Link Spann, deputy director of technology, security and cooperative programs, for the Navy International Program Office, said the process of setting up cooperative international agreements is “cumbersome.” At a recent industry conference in Arlington, Va., he said there is a need for more cooperation between the U.S. military services and foreign customers who buy U.S. weapon systems.

Capt. Elliot Powell, head of the security assistance directorate for the Navy International Program Office, cited the United Arab Emirates’ participation in the E-2C Hawkeye aircraft program and Japan’s involvement with the Aegis combat system as flagship efforts in international cooperation.

The Navy IPO has been a strong supporter of the Foreign Comparative Test program as a means to allow the Navy to benefit from the technologies supplied by foreign firms. Last year, the Defense Department endorsed 13 of 15 projects that the Navy supported under the FCT program. There are currently 16 in contention for fiscal year 2004.

South Korea Could Gravitate Toward China
South Korea may choose eventually to depart the security framework led by the United States in favor of siding with China, according to Jae Ho Chung, a Brookings Institution visiting fellow and a professor at Seoul Natio-nal University. The expanding South Korea-China relationship has raised concern among U.S. policy experts, he said.

While North Korea still remains a security threat to the South, developments in the region are likely to precipitate certain changes in the half-century alliance between Seoul and Washington, he wrote in a paper, entitled “How America Views China-South-Korea Bilateralism.”

The South Korea-United States alliance is no longer an indispensable frontline checkpoint against communism in East Asia, he wrote. “The curious relationship between Seoul and Beijing has come a long way from antagonistic enemies to cooperative partners for the future,” Chung said. “Seoul’s unprecedented efforts to devise a strategic balance between Washington and Beijing have been a source of sour feelings and grave concern” for the United States.

South Korea’s decision in 1999 not to join the Theater Missile Defense plan and its sensitivity to discussing China-related issues at the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group displeased the United States, said Chung. In 2002, America’s popularity in South Korea, hit a low catalyzed by the deaths of two schoolgirls struck by a U.S. armored vehicle.

In the short- and mid-term, South Korea’s choice will be to stick with the U.S. based alliance, while expanding ties with China, Chung said. An inevitable dilemma is “looming large for Seoul,” he concluded. “South Korea’s geopolitical and economic stakes in China are increasing rapidly, to the point of surpassing those in the United States.” While reservations about China still exist in Seoul, Korea is hoping that the United States will act as an “honest broker” in the region, Chung said.

Women—America’s “Secret Weapons”
One answer to why the Islamic world hates America is the role of women in U.S. society, according to Ralph Peters, a retired Army intelligence officer and a New York Times best selling author.

“Women are America’s secret weapons,” he said in a presentation to the National Defense Industrial Association’s armaments conference. Peters calls women “America’s hyper-power.” For the past 150 years, women fought their way into the educational system and the work force, he said.

“In the last past century, ... the greatest sociological revolution was the transition of women in the U.S., Canada and some other countries in Western Europe, from men’s property,” he said. That is not the case in the Middle East, Peters contends, where society is purely patriarchic. Middle Eastern women, by not being allowed to study and work, make almost no contribution to the economy, he said. Pakistan, for example, uses at most 20 percent of its human capital, because women are not in the work force, said Peters. In comparison, the United States uses almost 80 percent, he said.

“Any society that oppresses its women, that tortures and disfigures women while giving men a free pass,” is not going to move forward, and it is “not using its human capital,” he said.

The Islamic world is undergoing a crisis, according to Peters. “I am not sure if it’s a clash of civilizations, as much as it is a crash of one civilization,” he said. His prognosis is that Islam is going to change, just like Christianity and Judaism changed in the United States over the years. “The positive social pressures of our competitive society break down barriers.”

Muslims in the United States and Canada can spur the changes, he said.

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