What should Our Military Focus on?

[blackjack50]

Just as it sounds. Very basic. How should we use our military in this day and age? What is the most sound strategy in your eyes? Lots of small scale intelligence/counter Intelligence? Deal with these brushfire wars?

Or should we focus on letting these wars be fought and concern ourselves with major wars? Or none of the above? Or all of the above? Should we learn how to fight wars without actually going to combat (like economic war)?

 

[cpwill]

Just as it sounds. Very basic. How should we use our military in this day and age? What is the most sound strategy in your eyes? Lots of small scale intelligence/counter Intelligence? Deal with these brushfire wars?

Or should we focus on letting these wars be fought and concern ourselves with major wars? Or none of the above? Or all of the above? Should we learn how to fight wars without actually going to combat (like economic war)?

Achieving US foreign policy objectives in order of precedence where appropriate to DOD capabilities?



If you are speaking to what capabilities we should emphasize, we should reinvigorate the "two campaigns and a brushwar" requirement.

 

[blackjack50]

Achieving US foreign policy objectives in order of precedence where appropriate to DOD capabilities?



If you are speaking to what capabilities we should emphasize, we should reinvigorate the "two campaigns and a brushwar" requirement.

How so to the bottom?

 

[cpwill]

How so to the bottom?

Rebuild Naval and Air Force capacity for force projection, for one.

 

[Dragonfly]

What should Our Military Focus on?

Self-defense.

Not policing the world. Not "fixing" what's wrong outside our borders. Not trying to control other countries. Not fighting other countries battles.


Strictly self-defense.

Bring 'em all home. Set them up all along our borders to protect ourselves, and in our major ports and points of entry.

 

[blackjack50]

Rebuild Naval and Air Force capacity for force projection, for one.

Ah. So you are talking about capability. Not necessarily involvement.

 

[blackjack50]

Self-defense.

Not policing the world. Not "fixing" what's wrong outside our borders. Not trying to control other countries. Not fighting other countries battles.


Strictly self-defense.

Bring 'em all home. Set them up all along our borders to protect ourselves, and in our major ports and points of entry.

Wouldn't that be against the law? Using them in an operation like that? Wouldn't they fall outside their jurisdiction?

 

[Dragonfly]

Wouldn't that be against the law? Using them in an operation like that? Wouldn't they fall outside their jurisdiction?

It's against the law to defend our own country????

 

[blackjack50]

It's against the law to defend our own country????

No. For the military to conduct operations within our own border during non wartime. Posse comitatus. I'm not 100% on it.

 

[beerftw]

Just as it sounds. Very basic. How should we use our military in this day and age? What is the most sound strategy in your eyes? Lots of small scale intelligence/counter Intelligence? Deal with these brushfire wars?

Or should we focus on letting these wars be fought and concern ourselves with major wars? Or none of the above? Or all of the above? Should we learn how to fight wars without actually going to combat (like economic war)?

in our current situation,the military should return to war games being at peace time.

without constant war to train troops,war games offer the only experience they will get,often pitting soldiers against soldiers in simulated combat.outside of war games things like intelligence move on whether peace or war time.

 

[Ganesh]

Just as it sounds. Very basic. How should we use our military in this day and age? What is the most sound strategy in your eyes? Lots of small scale intelligence/counter Intelligence? Deal with these brushfire wars?

Or should we focus on letting these wars be fought and concern ourselves with major wars? Or none of the above? Or all of the above? Should we learn how to fight wars without actually going to combat (like economic war)?

1) Spend more on countering cyber warfare. Without the digital links that hold modern forces together, little is going to be effective.

2) Greater emphasis on unmanned vehicles. Low coast UV's are becoming ever more prevalent in even modest militaries, and risking a 2 billion dollar submarine, or a 100 million dollar fighter against cheap vehicles that will soon be able to achieve the same mission is a downhill road.

3) Control and rationalize costs. The F-35 program, for example, may be the most expensive ever enacted, and also may be obsolete before it is in full production. This is not the way of the future.

 

[Oozlefinch]

No. For the military to conduct operations within our own border during non wartime. Posse comitatus. I'm not 100% on it.

That is essentially correct.

The only time the US Military can operate within the US is only during some specific conditions. Like the President declares a State of Emergency, and the Governor gives his or her permission for the troops to enter. And this always happens, because at the same time they Nationalize the National Guard, which takes them off of the State Payroll and places them on the Federal one.

I still remember when a training flight was being conducted from Fort Rucker when a tornado ripped through the Enterprise High School, killing several students. The helipcopters landed on the foorball field to try and evacuate some of the wounded without authorization. Ultimately the commander of that flight was given a letter of reprimand, and the Governor wrote them a letter retroactively giving them permission to operate in his state without authorization.

The military takes Posse comitatus very seriously, even though far to many civilians think noting of it, or think it is a joke. Any military actions on US soil without prior permissions by State and Federal egencies can lead to dire consequences.

This is for example why whenever something was conducted inside of a state (Kent State, Little Rock Nine, etc) was done with Nationalized National Guard, not the US Military.

 

[Eddie_V]

At the expense of being simplistic, I would focus on becoming smaller and somewhat more "automated" - this is a fine time to revamp and revise capabilities, if not modernize some critical things (analogous to where the US stood from 1974-1980, or even Germany in 1920-1939). Things that fly, swim or tread over land should be increasingly be devloved from direct human presence, be it via open or closed loop human control. This opens a whole world of both kinetic and "soft" warfare options that can be well exploited.

If this is a foreign policy / "posse commitatus" debate, please pass the check to Rand Paul, and I will leave now.......