Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee-FY2005 National Defense Authorization Budget: European and Southern Command

Federal News Service March 24, 2004 Wednesday

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: FISCAL YEAR 2005 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BUDGET: EUROPEAN AND SOUTHERN COMMAND

CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA)

WITNESSES: GENERAL JAMES L. JONES, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS, COMMANDER, U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND; GENERAL JAMES T. HILL, UNITED STATES ARMY, COMMANDER, U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND

LOCATION: 2118 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

BODY:

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA): The committee will come to order. This morning the committee continues its review of the posture of our unified commands for Fiscal Year 2005. Our guests today are General James L. Jones, United States Marine Corps commander U.S. European Command, and General James T. Hill, U.S. Army, commander U.S. Southern Command.

So welcome back to the committee, gentlemen. We look forward to your testimony. We appreciate your appearance.

Over the last year or so a number of critics have accused the administration of acting unilaterally in the world. If your test for multilateralism is global consensus, it would be easy to believe that those charges were accurate. In fact, they couldn't be further from the truth.

Even though France, Germany, and Belgium criticized the United States for Operation Iraqi Freedom, some 34 countries have contributed forces to providing security and stability in Iraq. Three fall under General Hill's area of responsibility and 22 of those countries fall under General Jones'. Collectively, they constitute a majority of our allies in NATO. The U.S. is also working cooperatively with 34 other countries in the International Security and Assistance Force in Afghanistan under NATO leadership.

In Haiti the United States has deployed peacekeepers in cooperation with troops from France, Canada and Chile. And, in Colombia the United States is actively engaged in raising standards of professionalism and instilling a respect for human rights in the Colombian military, both of which are necessary if Colombia's fragile democracy is to prevail against narco-terrorists.

In Africa the administration is launching the Pan-Sahel initiative to assist Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania in reducing the ungoverned spaces they share and closing down a possible refuge for terrorists and their allies. In Liberia U.S. forces worked closely with the Economic Community of West African States, an organization of 15 countries, to bring fighting there to a halt and restore some degree of law and order.

Clearly, this is not the picture of a country unable to work and play well with others. Instead of the caricature painted by certain pundits, it is the image of an administration moving proactively and multilaterally to change material facts on the ground and improve U.S. national security. And ultimately that's where our security lies: in proactively changing our environment by acting to remove the threats to our security, not in accepting the lowest common denominator on which the world's governments can all agree.

Being proactive means changing some of our historical national security relationships. It means that some activities and locations accustomed to being at the center of U.S. policymaking during the Cold War will become less important, and that some feelings could be hurt as the United States changes its global defense posture to reflect the new strategic landscape that we face. Ultimately, it means changing our global footprint and relocating many of our military forces around the world.

Generals Jones and Hill understand that and are at the center of these shifts. Even as we meet, they've been reconfiguring their activities to better deal with the war on terror. Gentlemen, we look forward to hearing how your commands are adopting to our new strategic circumstances. So thank you again for being with us and taking some of your valuable time to work with the committee this morning. And before we go to General Jones, let me recognize my partner, the distinguished gentleman from Missouri, the ranking Democrat for any remarks he might want to make.

Mr. Skelton.

REP. IKE SKELTON (D-MO): Mr. Chairman, thank you. And thank you for calling and arranging this hearing.

General Hill, welcome back.

And, General Jones, we welcome you back to the committee. I think this is your first, however, as the commander of the European Command. And a special thanks to you for visiting with our delegation in Ramstein when we were on our way back from Afghanistan and Iraq. I know many know already, but you were honored last night at three barracks with the unveiling of your portrait. So we congratulate you on that, General Jones.

Let me say, Mr. Chairman, at the outset how proud we are of the young men and young women who serve in the commands that are seated before us. We know that many forces from Europe, including now the 1st Infantry Division, are now in Iraq and many more have already served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and they've done so with distinction. In the Southern Command, American Marines are trying to bring order again out of troubled Haiti, as they have so many other places and so many other times. Each time I visit with the troops I'm amazed at how accomplished they are.

General Jones, our NATO partners have formed a core alliance for more than 50 years. They're with us in Afghanistan and our collective presence there I believe is key to helping President Karzai bring stability to that nation. I also believe that our NATO allies are critical in our efforts in Iraq, both in assuring the Iraqis that this is not an American occupation alone and decreasing the burden on our already stretched troops.

Things, as we know, have a potential to go bad quickly in Iraq. Last week's bombing showed that. And I hope the transition to some new government at the end of June goes smoothly and that Iraq becomes a stable country with a viable and representative form of government. But I also worry that the situation there could devolve into a civil war and we need to be prepared for that possibility. Hopefully it doesn't come to pass.

The NATO countries are the best friends we have and Europe has just as great a stake in Iraq and the Middle East as we do. Stability is as important to them as it is to us. In the aftermath of the Spanish bombing, though, I worry about the significant NATO participation in Iraq and that it will become problematic. General Jones, I hope you will address us on that issue.

General Hill, it won't come as any surprise to you that I remain concerned about our troop involvement in Colombia; in particular, about the department's request to increase the existing troop and contract caps that are there. That's not to say that I don't think the president there is making progress against the rebel groups. I think that he is. My concern is about the level of American military commitment. I believe doubling the number of military personnel is not a small increase.

I'm concerned that this increase portends a creeping involvement in a conflict that is at its base a civil war.

By tying ourselves so closely to the success of the Colombia's Plan, I worry that we're effectively committing ourselves to future requests for troop increases if things do go badly. I do not hope for that outcome, but I think the possibility augers for a strategic look at the entire policy now before we find ourselves defaulting under significant military obligations. I'm particularly concerned about the troop cap issue and I hope, General Hill, you will address this issue for us. I believe for some time that we need a significant and permanent end strength increase, especially in the Army. And even if we got that increase, I still believe we currently should examine the strategic necessity of this policy change of which you're to testify.

So we thank you both, General Jones and General Hill, for being with us. We look forward to your testimony.

Mr. Chairman, thank you.

REP. HUNTER: I thank the distinguished gentleman.

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Mr. Calvert.

REP. KEN CALVERT (R-CA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

General Jones, I'd like to get back to Africa for a moment. You mentioned EUCOM's initiative there in the Pan-Sahel area. What are our numbers of troops and resources that we presently have committed in that area? And possibly what-in the future will there be additional troops and resources?

GEN. JONES: Thank you, sir. The American footprint in Africa is generally quite small. We have a number of teams, usually special forces teams, that are out in various countries that are helping nations develop their basic infantry skills, patrolling capabilities and the like. So it's a very, very small scale footprint but yielding, I think, very high results. And I think part of the transformation that we're proposing for the U.S. European Command is to be able to have more strategic effect through a rebalancing of the force and greater access to the wider expanded area that defines European Command in 91 countries.

Helping nations help themselves has always been the hallmark of, I think, American success and we-although this is a very modest beginning, we are finding that by bringing to bear those things that only we can provide, for instance intelligence capabilities and small units that can go out and lend helping hands to train host nation forces, we get a tremendous return on that investment. But I will get to you the specifics in terms of the numbers. It's in the hundreds, not any higher than that.

REP. CALVERT: Right.

Well, the reason I asked is that obviously there are terrorist groups that are looking for a base of operation, and that region of the world seems an obvious choice for some. And I guess my question, again, do you believe we'll stay as a supporting activity? Or do you think this could be-have the potential to become another major front on the war on terror?

GEN. JONES: I think that Africa in some respects, like South America, is still problematic as to whether the roots of democracy are going to survive in certain countries. And General Hill and I have talked about this several times in respect to our missions, that we feel very strongly that-and I don't want to speak for General Hill, but I believe we share a common view that the more we do now at the small end of things, the less we'll have to do in the future.

And so I think that a more proactive engagement strategy-but not just talking about terrorism. I mean, this is certainly something that we want to fight, but the causes that allow organizations like radical fundamentalists and the like to take foothold that will cause us problems down in the future, where we will have to act. I think by acting now proactively and by doing those things that reach out in a broader context beyond security-but what happens if you secure an area? What's going to change in the society? Are there investments that are in command? Are there companies that are willing to help make a difference and build factories and capitalize on a labor market that, frankly, is just sitting around watching whatever is going to happen.

So I'm really excited about the kind of work we're doing. I think it's very, very-it's an initial step, but I think for a very small investment, comparatively speaking, we could save ourselves from much greater investments in the future, and that's really what I'm trying to get across.

REP. CALVERT: Thank you, General.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

REP. HUNTER: I thank the gentleman.

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