Transformation des US-Militärs steckengeblieben

--- Lange haben die USA mit ihrem Konzept der Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) die Transformation hin zum Hightech-Krieg mit seinen Information Operations vorangetrieben. Zumindest theoretisch, schreibt die Washington Post, denn das Umformungsprogramm ist weitgehend stecken geblieben bzw. im Sande verlaufen: Three years into the Bush administration's effort to transform the U.S. military -- a critical part of its defense platform in the last presidential campaign -- there is little consensus on whether progress has been made in creating the sort of radical change envisioned. President Bush and his civilian Pentagon leaders were determined to move the military from a heavy, slow-moving industrial era-type force designed to fight the Red Army to a faster, more adaptive organization built around information age technologies. It would become more agile and easier to deploy, making it better equipped to deal with failed states, terrorism and other 21st-century missions. One of the first steps the administration took toward that goal was creating the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation, led by retired Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski. But many experts say that few tangible steps have been taken. "It is hard to pin down anything concrete that has come out of the office," said retired Army Lt. Col. James Jay Carafano, who now follows defense issues at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Retired Col. Douglas Macgregor, author of several studies of how to change the Army, said he thinks that, apart from better linking of military data networks, the armed forces have largely ignored Cebrowski's efforts. "He has had no impact on programming other than to push the notion that networking will solve our problems," said Macgregor, a longtime advocate of radically changing the Army who left the service in June. Overall at the Pentagon, he said, "I see no direction other than pouring money into a range of programs with their roots in the Cold War," such as the Air Force's F-22 fighter, the Marine Corps' V-22 tilt-rotor troop transport, space-based radars and national missile defense.

Wer sich vom neuen Buch von US-General Tommy R. Franks (American Soldier) Einsichten über den Stand der RMA erhofft, wird jedenfalls enttäuscht. Die Washington Post rezensiert den Band ebenfalls heute und findet darin wenig Lesenswertes. Ein wenig Kritik an Richard Clarke, ein wenig aber auch an US-Verteidigungsminister Rumsfeld zumindest, mehr angeblich nicht: In his one overarching criticism of the administration's handling of the Iraq war, Franks faults Powell and Rumsfeld for failing to ease chronic friction between the State Department and the Pentagon. "I believe that better listening, more intellectual flexibility, and more willingness to learn and compromise would have better served . . . the commander-in-chief, and our country," he writes. But he does not offer specifics of interagency squabbling that troubled him.