Hearing of the Senate Committee on Armed Services - Global Posture Review of United States Military Forces Stationed Overseas

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

SUBJECT: GLOBAL POSTURE REVIEW OF UNITED STATES MILITARY FORCES STATIONED OVERSEAS

CHAIRED BY: SENATOR JOHN WARNER (R-VA)

WITNESSES: DONALD H. RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE;

GENERAL RICHARD B. MYERS, USAF, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF;

GENERAL JAMES L. JONES, JR., USMC, COMMANDER, UNITED STATES EUROPEAN COMMAND AND SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, EUROPE;

ADMIRAL THOMAS B. FARGO, USN, COMMANDER, UNITED STATES PACIFIC COMMAND;

GENERAL LEON J. LAPORTE, USA, COMMANDER, UNITED NATIONS COMMAND, REPUBLIC OF KOREA/UNITED STATES COMBINED FORCES COMMAND, COMMANDER, UNITED STATES FORCES KOREA

LOCATION: 216 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

BODY:
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, I know I'm not the only one who worries that in a political season about the debate over our policy in Iraq, what impact the negativism and the doom and gloom that we hear preached in some quarters has on our troops. And so I think we have a special responsibility, those of us who serve in public office, to make sure that we exercise our-do what we do responsibly. But it does have an impact on people all across America as well, because they wonder how much of this doom and gloom, as opposed to what we heard from Prime Minister Allawi this morning about positive steps and progress in Iraq-what's the truth?

For example, yesterday afternoon I had a constituent of mine call me from Lubbock, Texas, because he heard that yesterday it's possible that the president would reinstate the draft to handle the war in Iraq if reelected. And this statement followed on a charge last week that the president is planning a surprise post-election call-up of additional Guard and Reserve troops.

Mr. Secretary, would you state for the record: Are there any plans for a post-election call-up of additional Guard or Reserve troops? And is there any plan to reinstate the draft?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, let me take the first one, on the draft, and I'll leave General Myers to talk about how we're managing our force rotation.

I'm not supposed to get in politics, but it is absolutely false that anyone in this administration is considering reinstating the draft. That is nonsense. We've got 295 million people in the United States of America. We need 1.4 million people to serve in the active force. We are having no trouble attracting and retaining the people we need.

If we were managing this force better-and it takes years to rearrange it properly-it has been malorganized, malarranged as between the active and the Reserve components, and we've got too darn many people in uniform doing civilian jobs. And if we have to increase the numbers above 1.4 million, we can do it under the emergency authorities.

We are not having trouble maintaining a force of volunteers. Every single person's a volunteer. We do not need to use compulsion to get people to come in the armed services! We've got an ample number of talented, skillful, courageous, dedicated young men and women willing to serve. And it's false.

GEN. MYERS: On continued call-up of the Reserve component and the active duty, what we've done is try to build in as much predictability as we can, both for active forces and for our Reserve component forces. There will be more Guard and Reserve call-ups in November, in December, in January and for as long as we need forces to provide to General Abizaid or any of the combat commanders that are sitting here with me. So yes, there will be.

None of them have been delayed for any reason. We-this is a process that has been consistent now for about the last year, and there will be-there were call-ups in September. There will be some in October. There will be some in November. So yes, it will continue on as we continue to feed forces to the combatant commanders to do what they need to do.

But what we're really trying to do is get ahead of the whole process, so we can provide predictability, particularly for the Reserve component, who have to, in many cases, leave civilian jobs and their families, not near military installations, and answer the call their country gives them. So we're trying to do that, matter of fact.

SEN. CORNYN: I appreciate that very much.

Let me just ask one more question, and this time it's about the subject upon which this hearing actually was convened. And that is the Global Posture Review. And of course there have been some questions about the interrelationship or the interdependence of that process and BRAC. And obviously that's something we're concerned about on a number of different levels.

But can you explain to me, Mr. Secretary-it's unclear to me how, if this Global Posture Review, which I understand has been going on for three years or more, how it is that we will make-make sure there are accommodations here in the United States on existing military bases; how those two are going to dovetail in a way that makes sense?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Yes, sir. It's really exactly this way.

We have decided what it makes sense to bring back to the United States from all around the world, different places. We know those numbers. We feed that number into the BRAC process and it then becomes part of their deliberations as to where-which bases they should go to and how it ought to be arranged. Had we not done this work over the past three years, we would not know what was going to have to come back, and therefore there would have been a question mark in a BRAC process. The two are dovetailing perfectly and they link together tightly.

SEN. CORNYN: Finally, I've heard the-I've heard it said that we're not out of troops; we're out of balance. And I think that's a thumbnail sketch for what you've described earlier with regard to the restructuring of our military, which I know is under way and General Schoomaker and others working on. But I will say that we're already begun to see some evidence of that restructuring with recent announcements of the placement of modular brigades at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss. And so this is a very dynamic period of time we're in here where I think we're going to see a lot of change. But I think we're on the right track and I appreciate your efforts.

Thank you.