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President Obama's Military

statesman

Shut up woman... get on my horse.
pilot
I was looking through the President's agenda posted on The White House web site. I found his section on Defense somewhat different than I would have expected (certainly more different than what the far left is thinking I think):

A few of the items caught my attention:

Expand to Meet Military Needs on the Ground: Obama and Biden support plans to increase the size of the Army by 65,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps by 27,000 Marines. Increasing our end strength will help units retrain and re-equip properly between deployments and decrease the strain on military families.

Interesting that he plans to increase troops, not just on the ground but in overall military size. While this mentions nothing about a 'surge' strategy it made me wonder if additional troops means an expected increase in US presence in the middle east. There is mention of a full withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by 2010, but with Iraq out of the picture aren't we likely to a freeing up of troops?

I say this because of how the agenda mentions the deployment tempo. It would be my expectation that if the President were expecting a US withdrawal from Iraq he would not worry about troop levels and deployment cycles as we would be at peace or at least fighting only in Afghanistan.

Preserve Global Reach in the Air: We must preserve our unparalleled airpower capabilities to deter and defeat any conventional competitors, swiftly respond to crises across the globe, and support our ground forces. We need greater investment in advanced technology ranging from the revolutionary, like Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and electronic warfare capabilities, to essential systems like the C-17 cargo and KC-X air refueling aircraft, which provide the backbone of our ability to extend global power.

There have been many rumors regarding possible changes in the acquisition of new airplanes (specifically delaying the roll out of the F-35 or significant reductions in the number of aircraft purchased). Much of what I have read seems to be more speculation rather than reporting on what the President said in his campaign. To my knowledge the President never talked about cutting the JSF or shrinking the program.

Maintain Power Projection at Sea: We must recapitalize our naval forces, replacing aging ships and modernizing existing platforms, while adapting them to the 21st century. Obama and Biden will add to the Maritime Pre-Positioning Force Squadrons to support operations ashore and invest in smaller, more capable ships, providing the agility to operate close to shore and the reach to rapidly deploy Marines to global crises

Expanded LCS program? Steering away from a carrier centric force? Obviously you cant abandon the carriers, but does this mean their role has been hedged a little bit?



I definitely am not trying to begin a political fire storm, rather just wanted to see if others saw what I saw in the Presidents agenda.

If this post is completely incoherent I apologize in advance, its late and the benadryl that I took for allergies just kicked in.
 

exhelodrvr

Well-Known Member
pilot
I definitely am not trying to begin a political fire storm, rather just wanted to see if others saw what I saw in the Presidents agenda.

Whether the campaign rhetoric and promises were due to naivete or dishonesty, or some combination of those, reality is a bitch. And I strongly expect that Obama's policies will bear a lot of resemblances to those of his predecessor.
 

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Reality is indeed a beeotch. It's one thing to make promises when you're the long-shot fighting a doomed battle to defeat the Clinton machine, another when you're actually the President.

So far, I'm ecouraged by what Obama's been doing - keeping Gates onboard for a while, appointing centrists to State and Defense (I don't think much of Hillary in general, but when it comes to foreign relations, she's been pretty centrist).

I confess to enjoying the crestfallen faces of his far-left fans as they realize he's not going to end all wars forever tomorrow and hand out free puppies.

The President seems to have quickly grasped that the Presidency isn't a magic wand, and seems to have a good handle already on what he can and can't do, which is more than I can say for a lot of Democrats (I think Carter still hasn't figured it out). One thing's for sure - with a solid Congressional majority, his biggest political rival pulled into his Cabinet, and the entire world acting like he's a combination of a Beatles reunion and the Second Coming, he doesn't have much excuse if he can't get something done.
 

usmarinemike

Solidly part of the 42%.
pilot
Contributor
I confess to enjoying the crestfallen faces of his far-left fans as they realize he's not going to end all wars forever tomorrow and hand out free puppies.

The President seems to have quickly grasped that the Presidency isn't a magic wand, and seems to have a good handle already on what he can and can't do, which is more than I can say for a lot of Democrats (I think Carter still hasn't figured it out). One thing's for sure - with a solid Congressional majority, his biggest political rival pulled into his Cabinet, and the entire world acting like he's a combination of a Beatles reunion and the Second Coming, he doesn't have much excuse if he can't get something done.

The only problem is that even though he does enjoy the benefit of a Congressional majority, it's a decent number of those guys/gals/things that seem to be space cadets when it comes to defense. Which brings us to the REAL problem here which is that it is Congress holding the big sack of money...errr...IOUs. And in Congress, as we saw even on inauguration day with Hillary Clinton not getting confirmed and such, it is business as usual.
 

Clux4

Banned
The Beatles and the Second Coming?
I think the Beatles would have offered Jesus their autograph :D

I think Clinton will turn out to be Obama's problem. She will bring Bill along as a baggage. Bill still needs to be reminded that he is no longer the President and has no position in government. Beating her during the election is one thing, controlling here when she has her own foreign policy agenda is another thing.
 

bunk22

Super *********
pilot
Super Moderator
Hopefully he increases the size of the Army and Marines so that we can do away with this IA/GSA horseshit. My .02 :)
 

squorch2

he will die without safety brief
pilot
From the skipper at a recent safety standdown: "IAs and GSAs are scheduled to increase significantly."
 

squorch2

he will die without safety brief
pilot
I raised the point if IAs and GSAs are gap-fillers for the Army while they fix their structural manning problems, why are we still doing them 6 years later? Still no really good answer other than "we need to show we support GWOT."
 

bunk22

Super *********
pilot
Super Moderator
I raised the point if IAs and GSAs are gap-fillers for the Army while they fix their structural manning problems, why are we still doing them 6 years later? Still no really good answer other than "we need to show we support GWOT."

The E2/C2 placement officer is a friend of mine. We spoke at length last week about the GSA issues. At least for our community, it's a huge pain in the ass. When it comes down, it is seemingly the most important item...GSA is filled before anything. Squadron going on deployment needs a pilot but there's a GSA, too bad he goes to play Army for a year. VT undermanned, IP's flying 2-3X's everyday...too bad. That's a good deal. Give us 2 IA's for a year. I'm just not a kool-aid drinker. I know some guys who really loved their IA assingments, great tour for them but I'm old school, Navy is Navy, Army is Army. Want to have volunteer only IA assignments, go for it. Gives us a chance to offer assingments out of the box but making it madatory over your own service and community, doesn't sit right with me. I volunteered for my IA but I was going to get voluntold so why not do it on my own terms.
 

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
What is a GSA? sorry for the idiot question...

similar to an IA I'm guessing from context
 

sevenhelmet

Low calorie attack from the Heartland
pilot
^^^ (2 posts up) It's hearing about things like this that are my #1 deterrent from going career.

GSA is the "new" name for an IA, just given between PCS orders rather than during a PCS tour. It's the same concept, go do something somewhere for the Army (usually) for 6 to 12 months that has nothing to do with your MOS/designator in your chosen branch of service. (feel free to expand on this, those of you who know better.) Yet another sign that the IA concept is here to stay.
 

MasterBates

Well-Known Member
IAs are just more of the do more with less, which eventually becomes do everything with nothing.

If I wanted to play army, I would have joined the fucking army.

Big leaders need to sack up and go to the appropriate people "We covered for the Army in their time of need, why the hell have they not been able to unfvck themselves in the last 6 years?"

To me, the IA/GSA is like food stamps to the Army. In principle, it's supposed to be a little help to let you get back up on your feet (and eventually get off them) but instead they start planing their "family budget" (read as manning) around having the "food stamps" (IA Bodies to fill billets) and spend the money (manpower) elsewhere.
 

m0tbaillie

Former SWO
Is there any specific reason that the Navy was the branch-of-choice to pick up the Army's slack for almost 6 years due to their own mismanagement of resources/troops, or was it arbitrary?
 
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