The need right now is critical to transform our military in a deliberate and thoughtful, yet significant, way. Americans must acknowledge this need and support investment in this transformation for it to succeed. This will require a stronger and closer relationship between Americans and their military. This relationship has drifted apart, and has even been strained at times, since the end of the Vietnam War and the institution of the all-volunteer force.
What should be the shape of that transformation?
The military traditionally goes out there and kills people and breaks things. From that, we determine how we are going to straighten out the mess or resolve the conflict. Once upon a time, we looked at the other elements of national power--political, economic, information, whatever--to figure out how we could bring them to bear. That's what George Marshall did at the end of World War Two. It has not happened in recent times.
The military does a damned good job of killing people and breaking things. We can design a better rifle squad than anybody in the world. We can build a better fighter, a better ship, a better tank, a smarter bomb. We are so far ahead of any potential enemy right now in those kinds of technological areas, in the areas of expertise, of quality of leadership, and of all the other elements that make military units great on the battlefield, that you wonder why we keep busting brain cells working to make it better, or to transform it into something else.
Transformation has to include finding better and more remarkable ways to tap into technology, our own brainpower, our training and education, and creative ways of redesigning our organization to make our military even more efficient and more powerful on the battlefield.
But transformation has to go beyond that.
What is the role of the military beyond killing people and breaking things?
Right now, the military in Iraq has been stuck with that baby. In Somalia, we were stuck with that baby. In Vietnam, we were stuck with that baby. It is not a new role, and it is going to continue. We have to ask ourselves how the military needs to change in order to actually deal with these political, economic, social, security, and information management challenges that we've already been facing for a long time. If those wearing suits can't come in and solve the problem--can't bring the resources, the expertise, the organization to bear--and the military is going to continue to get stuck with it, you have two choices: Either the civilian officials must develop the capabilities demanded of them and learn how to partner with other agencies to get the job done, or the military finally needs to change into something else beyond the breaking and the killing.
What could this mean?
It could mean that we return to a military that's a calling and not just a job. For more than a quarter-century, we have been operating with an All-Volunteer Force--and the American people tend to forget that, until the volunteers stop showing up and reenlisting. The troops will start getting out because they're deployed too long and too often. We need sufficient forces to meet our commitments, have the time for our forces to be properly trained, and provide for the quality of life that supports a first-rate military.
We were building an All-Volunteer Force with professionals, not mercenaries. The troops certainly don't mind a better paycheck, but first and foremost they truly want to be the best military in the world. We owe them that and we owe them the care they deserve after serving our nation.
It could mean military civil affairs will change from being just a tactical organization doing basic humanitarian care and interaction with the civilian population to actually being capable of reconstructing nations. That will require people in uniform, and maybe civilian suits as well, who are educated in the disciplines of economics and political structures and who will actually go in and work these issues. Either we get the civilian officials on the scene who can do it--get them there when they need to be there, give them the resources and the training, and create the interoperability that is necessary--or validate the military mission to do it.
It could mean we would at last go into each of these messy new situations with a strategic plan, a real understanding of regional and global security, and a knowledge of what it takes to wield the power to shape security and move it forward. Where are today's Marshalls, Eisenhowers, and Trumans, who had the vision to see the world in a different way, and who understood America's role and what had to be done in order to play that role?
Our military men and women should never be put on a battlefield without a strategic plan, not only for the fighting--our generals will take care of that--but for the aftermath and for winning the war. Where are we, the American people, if we accept less; if we accept any level of sacrifice without an adequate level of planning?
It kills me when I hear of the continuing casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan and the sacrifices being made. It also kills me to hear someone say that each one of those is a personal tragedy, but in the overall scheme of things, the numbers are statistically insignificant. Bullshit. We should challenge any military or political leader who utters such words. The greatest treasure the United States has is our enlisted men and women. When we put them in harm's way, it had better count for something. Their loss is a national tragedy.
AS I REFLECT on my own forty years of military service, and my later years of diplomacy and peacemaking, I have to ask: "What is our legacy?" My son is now a Marine captain. What have we left for him to look forward to?
We all know that burgeoning technology will widen his horizons beyond anything we can imagine. It will also present new questions of ethics and morality that we have barely begun to fathom. Yet he must also live with the organization I have had to live with for forty years. Napoleon could reappear today and recognize the Central Command staff organization: J-1, administration stovepipe; J-2, intelligence stovepipe--you get the idea. This antiquated organization is oblivious to what everyone else in the world is doing: flattening organization structure, with decentralized operations and more direct communications. This must be fixed.
My son will have to deal with the inevitable military-civilian rift and drift--which will become more severe in the future. He will also have to deal with the social issues we have not been able to fix. And they will get tougher, within a national debate over why we still need a strong military. My son's generation must ultimately face the question of how much the military should be a reflection of U.S. society. The people of America will get the military they want, in due course, but it is up to the military to advise them about the risks and consequences of their decisions.
My son will face nontraditional missions in messy places that will make Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq look like a picnic. He will see a changed battlefield, with an accelerated tempo and greatly expanded knowledge base. He will witness a great drop in the sense of calling. People entering the military will not be imprinted with his code. On his watch, my son is likely to see a weapons of mass destruction event. Another and worse 9/11 will occur in some city, somewhere in the world where Americans are gathered. When that nasty bug or gas or nuke is released, it will forever change him and his institutions. At that point, all the lip service paid to dealing with such an eventuality will be revealed for what it is--lip service. And he will have to deal with it for real. In its wake, I hope he gets to deal with yet another--and better--Goldwater-Nichols arrangement.
What will we expect of him as a battlefield commander? Brains, guts, and determination--nothing new here. But we would ask for more than battlefield skill from our future commanders. We want character, sense of moral responsibility, and an ethical standard that rises above those of all other professions. We want him to be a model who accepts the profession of arms as a calling. We want him to take care of our sons and daughters and treat their lives as precious--putting them in harm's way only if it truly counts. We'll expect him to stand up to civilian leadership before thinking of his own career.
And I hope that we would think enough of him and his compatriots to show some respect for them along the way.
I h
ave been all over this globe and exposed to most of the cultures on it. I am fascinated by them. I love the diversity. I want to understand them and embrace them. I could never understand prejudice or rejection or the sense of superiority that drive the hatemongers of the world. I lived through a tumultuous period of our history when our own minorities broke from second-class citizenship into full participation in this wonderful dream we call America. I have been proud of their accomplishments and contributions. They have proven the bigots wrong and made our nation greater. I hope the dream we have struggled to realize can be extended to the rest of the planet.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Working on this book has been a long, hard process. Thanks to the friendship, encouragement, patience, prodding, creativity, and skillful contributions of Tom Clancy, Tony Koltz, Neil Nyren, Marty Greenberg, and Fred Williams, this project was made possible.
--Tony Zinni
INDEX
Abdullah, King (Jordan)
Abdullah, Crown Prince (Saudi Arabia)
Abdullah, Zaini, Dr.
Abramowitz, Mort
Aceh-Indonesia conflict
Addis Ababa
AD Skyraider aircraft
Advanced Operating Base
Afghanistan
Africa . See also Somalia
African Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS)
African Crisis Response Initiatives (ACRI)
Aideed, Mohammed Farrah
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)
Air campaign
Air Power Doctrine
Ala, Abu
Albright, Madeleine
Al Jazeera
All-Volunteer Force
Al Qaeda
Altynbayev, Gen.
Ambassadors
American Empire
Amphibious ops
Anderson, W. M., Maj.
Annan, Kofi
Arabs
Arafat, Yasser
Armitage, Richard
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)
Arroyo, Gloria
Asymmetric capabilities
Atto, Osman
Authorized Weapons Storage Sites (AWSSs)
Avebury, Eric, Lord
Ba'ath party headquarters
Badime
Baker, James
Balkans
Bandar, Prince
Bangladeshi Battalion
Barak, Ehud
Barre, Siad
Barzani, Masoud
Battle Command Training Program (BCTP)
Battlefield commander
Battlefield reports
Battle of the Bong Son Plain
Battle of Gallipoli
Battle of Mogadishu
Battle rhythm
Battle Staff
Bedard, Buck, Col.
Beirut Air Bridge
Beirut Marine barracks bombing
Berger, Sandy
Berlin
Berlin Wall
Binh Dinh Province (II CTZ)
Bin Jassim, Hamad
Bin Laden, Osama
Birddog light observation plane ("Herbie")
Body counts
Bong Son Plain
battle of
Booby traps
Booz Allen
Bosnia
Boutros-Ghali, Boutros
Bright Star (military exercise)
Brooks, Karen
Burch, Hal, Brig.
Burns, Bill
Buscemi, Mario, Lt. Gen.
Bush, George H. W.
Bush, George W.
Bushnell, Prudence
Butler, Richard
C-130
Cadre status
Campbell, Don, Brig. Gen.
Camp David negotiations
Camp Foster
Camp Hansen
Camp Hauge
Camp Lejeune
Camp Pendleton
Capstone course
Careerism
Caribbean
Carter administration
Center of gravity
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Central Asia
Central Command, U.S. (CENTCOM)
Zinni appointed DCINC
Zinni appointed CINC
and Somalia
staff organization
strategy, politics, and New American Empire
CH-53 helo
Chalabi, Ahmed
Checkpoint Charlie
Chelberg, Bob, Lt. Gen.
Cheney, Dick
China
Cholera
Christians
Civil Agency Response Element (CARE)
Civil-Military Operations Center (CMOC)
Clark Air Force Base
Clinton administration
Camp David negotiations
National Security Strategy
new global strategy
Coalition Support Teams
Code to live by
Cohen, William
Cold War . See also Soviet Union
aftermath of
peace dividend from
vestiges of
Combat missions
Combined Task Force (CTF)
Commander in chief (CINC)
Commander in chief Europe (CINCEUR)
Company D
Company tactical test
Company training
Components
Concepts and Capabilities Branch
Conflict resolution
Congress, U.S.
Congressional delegation (CODEL)
Constitution, U.S.
Containment
Conventional war
Crisis Action Team (CAT)
Croizat, Victor J., Col.
Cuban revolution
Cymkin, Tom
Dahlan, Mohamed
Dalton, John
Dam Tra O
Danang
Danger close
Danoon, Nashwan, Brig. Gen.
DeCosta, Dick, Gunnery Sgt.
Defense Department, U.S.
Deputy commander in chief (DCINC)
Dereliction of Duty (McMaster)
Deskins, Corp.
Development
DiSabatino, Cecilia
DiSabatino, Zupito
Disaster assistance
Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART)
Displaced persons
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres)
Dong Nai boats
Downing, Wayne, Gen.
Downing Commission
Draft
Drug use
Dual Containment
Dunant, Henri
Durant, Michael, Chief Warrant Officer
Early Bird
East Africa
East African Community (EAC)
East Berlin
Eastern bloc nations
East Timor
East-West competition
Egypt
Eisenhower, Dwight
Ekeus, Rolf
Eliezer, Ben
Elmo, Capt.
Emerald Express
Engagement
Environmental security
Erekat, Sa'eb
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Ethiopia-Eritrea war
Ethnic hatred
Europe
European Command, U.S. (EUCOM)
Evil Empire
Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)
Failed states
Fast-breaking missions
Feedback
Fieldcraft
Firefights
sense of
Fire procedure
1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF)
Flak jacket
Flamethrower
Fleet Antiterrorist Support Team (FAST)
Former Soviet Union (FSU)
Forward headquarters
France
Franks, Tommy, Gen.
Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
Fugit, E
d
Fulda Gap
Galvin, Jack, Gen.
Garcia, Lt. Gen.
Garner, Jay, Maj. Gen.
Garrett, John, Col.
Gbeho, Victor
Geneva Convention requirements
Giap, Gen.
Gingrich, Newt
Globalization
Godfrey, Jack, Maj. Gen.
Golden Spear
Goldwater-Nichols Act
Gray, Al, Gen.
Griffiths, Martin
Grossman, Marc
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
Gulf War
Gunn, Lee, Rear Adm.
Habbaniyah Air Base
Hamas
Hamilton, Bob, Capt.
Haynes, Fred, Maj. Gen.
Heebner, Dave, Gen.
Helicopters
Henri Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HDC)
"Herbies" (observation planes)
Hess, Capt.
Highway 1
Hirsch, John
Hoar, Joe, Gen.
Hobson, Jim, Brig. Gen.
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh Trail
Horn of Africa
"House of Pain" (Iraq intelligence HQ)
Howe, Jonathan, Adm.
H & S Company
Hue City
Hughes, Dan
Humanitarian Assessment Support Team (HAST)
Humanitarian assistance
in Iraq
in Somalia
Humanitarian Operation Center (HOC)
Humanitarian Relief Sectors (HRSs)
Human relations training
Hussein, Saddam
Ia Drang Valley
Incirlik Air Base
Independence movements
Inderfer, Rick
India
Indonesia
Infantry
Information revolution
Innovations
Institute of Peace, U.S. (USIP)
Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
Iran
Iraq
Battle Ready (2004) Page 50