[Vision2020] If Obama Wins

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Army Times -

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If Obama wins

Candidate cites need to earn troops’ trust, touts his judgment over 
McCain’s, holds civilians accountable for missteps in Iraq
By Rick Maze - rmaze at militarytimes.com

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama 
knows that to win the vote of current and former military members and 
their families, he has to prove himself.

“Precisely because I have not served in uniform, I am somebody who 
strongly believes I have to earn the trust of men and women in uniform,” 
Obama said in a July 2 interview with Military Times as he contrasted his 
lack of service with that of Republican presidential candidate John 
McCain, a Navy retiree and Vietnam veteran who has years of experience in 
Congress working on national security issues.

“I do not presume that from the day I am sworn in, every single service 
man or woman suddenly says, ‘This guy knows what he is doing,’” said 
Obama, a freshman U.S. senator from Illinois, in his most extensive 
interview to date on a wide range of military issues.

Earning trust, he said, means listening to advice from military people, 
including top uniformed leaders, combatant commanders and senior 
noncommissioned officers and petty officers. It also means standing up for 
the military on critical issues and keeping promises, Obama said. 

The 46-year-old former community organizer and civil rights attorney will 
formally become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee at the party’s 
August convention in Denver.

Obama said he hopes the military community will see him as “a guy looking 
out for us and not someone trying to score cheap political points.”

Military members and their families deserve better pay and benefits, he 
said, and although money might be hard to find for a generous increase, he 
supports increasing basic pay to keep up with inflation and private-sector 
salaries, and he believes housing allowances need to be increased so young 
service members and their families can afford adequate places to live.

He also wants to spend more to improve veterans’ health care and reduce 
the wait for a disability claim to be processed. 

“I don’t know a higher priority than making sure that the men and women 
who are putting themselves in harm’s way, day in and day out, are getting 
decent pay and decent benefits — so that when they return home as 
veterans, they don’t have to wait six months to get benefits that they’ve 
earned, that they’re not winding up homeless on the streets, that they’re 
being screened for post-traumatic stress disorder, that if a spouse is 
widowed, the benefits are sufficiently generous,” he said. “These are just 
basic requirements of a grateful nation.”

Obama said he did not want to be more specific because he did not want to 
make promises he might not be able to keep. “I think we can do a much 
better job than we’re doing right now,” he said. But, he added, “I want to 
be honest: We are going to be in a tight budget situation. We’re not going 
to be able to do everything all at once.” 

He also wants an end to stop-loss orders that extend active duty beyond 
separation or retirement dates, and he wants a deployment schedule that 
provides more stability and time at home for families.

One way to relieve this stress is to increase the size of the Army and 
Marine Corps. Obama’s plans for a 65,000-person increase in the Army and a 
27,000-person increase in the Marine Corps match plans already underway. 
He said he is not sure about personnel levels for the Navy and Air Force, 
but “I don’t anticipate a reduction” for those two services.

Troops in Iraq
Pulling U.S. combat forces out of Iraq would free up money for personnel 
programs and a host of other military needs, Obama said, citing the $10 
billion to $12 billion monthly cost of military operations there. He did 
not mention that funding for Iraq has, so far, been emergency funding on 
top of the regular peacetime budget that would not automatically be 
diverted to other military programs.

Getting U.S. combat troops out of Iraq is a key Obama goal, and one where 
he said he is misunderstood. His campaign materials say Obama would begin 
withdrawing combat troops from Iraq, one or two brigades a month, as soon 
as he takes office. But he added in the interview that the start of the 
withdrawal also depends on the security conditions on the ground.

Obama said he wants to reduce combat troops, leaving forces to continue 
training Iraqi police and military officers, providing security for U.S. 
officials and facilities and for counterterrorism operations. Exactly when 
and how quickly this would happen depends on the situation in the field, 
he said, acknowledging that military commanders on the ground would play a 
key role in recommending what steps to take.

Obama said he would not order any “precipitous” withdrawal of combat 
forces. Instead, he said, his policy is that “we should be as careful 
getting out of Iraq as we were careless in getting in.”

“I have always said that as commander in chief, I would seek the advice 
and counsel of our generals,” Obama said. But, in the end, “it is the job 
of commander in chief to set the strategy.”

A strategic factor in the decision to keep forces in Iraq includes, for 
him, a question about the risk of not having enough combat-ready forces 
for other operations.

“If we have only one battle-ready brigade outside the Iraq rotation to 
respond to other risks, that’s not good strategic planning by the 
commander in chief,” he said. “If we have a situation in Afghanistan where 
we are seeing more and more violence in the eastern portion of 
Afghanistan, at a time when we’ve actually increased the forces down there 
and we’ve got some of the best battle-tested operations deployed there, 
and we’re still seeing increases in violence, what that tells me is that 
we’ve got real problems.”

Obama said he believes he would be a far better commander in chief than 
McCain.

“I believe that I have a better grasp of where we need to take the 
country, and how we should use the power of ... not just our military, but 
all of our power in order to achieve American security,” Obama said. “I 
think I have a better sense than he does of where we need to go in the 
future.

“As somebody who has worked on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 
critical issues like nuclear proliferation . . . as somebody who has 
traveled widely and grew up traveling around the world, I think I have a 
clear sense of the nature of both the transnational threats and challenges 
but also the opportunities that are going to determine our safety and 
security for the foreseeable future. And that’s why I think I can be an 
effective commander in chief,” Obama said.

Accountability in leadership
During the interview, Obama discussed the issue of accountability for 
military leaders, including times when, he said, he believes the Bush 
administration has blamed senior officers for things that were not their 
fault. He contrasted his own personal standards of accountability that he 
said would apply if he becomes president.

“There are times during the course of this war where I felt that the 
military was blamed for bad planning on the civilian side, and that, I 
think, is unfortunate,” he said.

He acknowledged, however, that sometimes it is important to hold military 
leaders responsible for their actions.

Obama also spoke of rocking the boat. In what seems certain to be one of 
his more controversial proposals for the military, Obama said he wants to 
allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

Equity and fairness are part of the reason for lifting the ban on 
acknowledged homosexuals serving in the military, Obama said, but there 
are practical reasons, too — like getting “all hands on deck” when the 
nation needs people in uniform. “If we can’t field enough Arab linguists, 
we shouldn’t be preventing an Arab linguist from serving his or her 
country because of what they do in private,” he said, referring to the 
2006 discharge of about 60 linguists for violating the military’s “don’t 
ask, don’t tell” policy on service by homosexuals.

“I want to make sure that we are doing it in a thoughtful and principled 
way. But I do believe that at a time when we are short-handed, that 
everybody who is willing to lay down their lives on behalf of the United 
States and can do so effectively, can perform critical functions, should 
have the opportunity to do so.”

Asked how he would deal with opposition from within the Pentagon, Obama 
smiled and said: “Well, I’m a pretty persuasive guy.” But he acknowledged 
that pushing such a legal change through Congress would be more 
challenging. “We have to distinguish whether there are functional barriers 
to doing this and are people prepared for the political heat.”

Another potential boat-rocking issue involves the use of private military 
companies to do work once performed by uniformed troops. Obama said he 
would seek to limit military-related work in combat zones that is turned 
over to private contractors.

“There is room for private contractors to work in the mess hall providing 
basic supplies and doing some logistical work that might have been done in-
house in the past,” he said. “I am troubled by the use of private 
contractors when it comes to potential armed engagements. I think it puts 
our troops in harm’s way.” 

Obama also said he is troubled by the long-term effect of such a 
policy. “Over time, you are, I believe, eroding the core of our military’s 
relationship to the nation and how accountability is structured,” he 
said. “I think you are privatizing something that is what essentially sets 
a nation-state apart, which is a monopoly on violence.” 

OBAMA ON DEFENSE
Sen. Barack Obama’s positions on some key issues:

Iraq pullout. Obama wants to remove forces from Iraq at one to two 
brigades a month. He has not set a timetable, saying much will depend on 
the situation on the ground. He has often been quoted as saying, “We 
should be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in.”

Afghanistan buildup. Two more brigades would be sent to Afghanistan to 
fight the growing threat from the Taliban.

End strength. Obama supports the drive to grow the Army by 65,000 soldiers 
and add 27,000 Marines to the Marine Corps. He has not staked out a 
position on the sizes of the Navy and Air Force. The Navy is drawing down. 
The Air Force was shrinking, but that was halted recently.

Stop-loss. He would seek to end the policy for reservists and active-duty 
troops.

Military families. Obama would create a Military Families Advisory Board 
to cut burdens on spouses and families.

Pay rates. He plans to bring basic pay levels in line with the private 
sector. The campaign has not released specifics.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Obama would work to repeal the controversial law 
governing gays in the military. He said the law has deprived the armed 
services of troops with crucial skills.

Guard and reserves. Obama wants them to deploy one year out of every six 
years, and cap cumulative deployment time at 24 months.

Veterans. Troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan would have mental 
health screeners in every state. Veterans also would have up to five years 
to enroll to receive care from the Veterans Affairs Department, versus the 
two years now allowed.

Weapons programs. All major programs would be re-evaluated based on 
current and future needs. Trade-offs would be made between systems 
designed for the Cold War and other new aircraft, such as unmanned aerial 
vehicles and cargo and refueling aircraft. Although not going into 
specifics, Obama called for “unparalleled air power capabilities,” adding 
that “relying solely on old systems from a past century will not suffice.” 
Obama calls for modernizing current ships and investing in small, capable 
combatants. He supports the concept of the Littoral Combat Ship program.

Private contractors. Obama calls for greater accountability and oversight 
for private contractors, especially those who are working in a war zone, 
and would require the Defense Department to decide “where contracting 
makes sense and where it doesn’t.”

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Complete videos of Military Times' interview of Barack Obama:

http://www.militarytimes.com/projects/07072008_obama_interview_main/

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the 
tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

-- Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr. 


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