Force Transformation

Anthony Perez-Miller ponders the question of force transformation and its future manifestations:

My last link dump pointed to various defenses of SecDef Donald Rumsfeld. At some point I will acquit myself better on that subject, but in the meantime: The blogosphere has for the most part moved beyond merely answering the complaints of sundry hacks to considering what force transformation actually means.

I'm still trying to get my mind around this one as well, however, I do have some initial brainstorms that we should keep in mind in furthering this discussion.

First, we should expand this discussion beyond the Armed Forces and include the Intelligence Agencies. If there is one major lesson we have learned in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is the need for "actionable intelligence." The future forces that we deploy must work as seamlessly as possible in reacting to threats from the initial point of the gathering intelligence, its actionable assessment, and then the planning and execution phase of forces on the ground. Lacking human intel along with a CIA who is hostile to the Bush Doctrine, the CIA, in the end, may be the part of this equation that needs to be changed the most.

Next, it is imperative that we address how far the United States is willing to take the Bush Doctrine. What should our civilian leadership do if they are, in these instances, given intelligence on the ground about Baathist leaders in Syria giving order to forces fighting in Iraq, or on the nuclear capabilities of Iran? Given that we were snowed on WMDs in Iraq, it looks like this may be the hardest question of all to answer. However, it should also be emphasized that we cannot just "wait and see" what happens. If Syria is harboring men who are wanted for making war, in Iraq, against the United States, or if one of the largest terrorist supporting countries in the world, Iran, is working on a nuke, they forfeit their sovereignty and the America must not be afraid to act.

Just a couple of initial thoughts to get the ball rolling.