Posted on 06/17/2005 6:43:30 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
NEW U.S. DEFENSE POSTURE
By RICHARD HALLORAN
Special to The Japan Times
HONOLULU -- When U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld addressed the Shangri-la Security Dialogue in Singapore last weekend, most of the attention in the meeting and later in the press focused on his candid comments about China's military strategy, spending and modernization. The secretary barely touched on the fundamental revision in the U.S. defense posture that is intended to counter a potential threat from China or to respond swiftly to contingencies elsewhere, pointing only to "a repositioning of U.S. forces worldwide that will significantly increase our capabilities in support of our friends and allies in this region."
American defense officials in Washington, at the Pacific Command here in Hawaii, and in Asia have spent many months seeking to bring Rumsfeld's policy to reality. They have fashioned a plan intended to strengthen the operational control of the Pacific Command, enhance forces in the U.S. territory of Guam, tighten the alliance with Japan and streamline the U.S. stance in South Korea.
As pieced together from American and Japanese officials, who cautioned that no firm decisions have been made, the realignment shapes up like this:
ARMY: The U.S. Army headquarters in Hawaii will become a war-fighting command to devise and execute operations rather than one that trains and provides troops to other commands as it does now. The U.S. four-star general's post in Korea will be transferred to Hawaii.
The 1st Corps at Fort Lewis, Washington, will move to Camp Zama, Japan, to forge ties with Japan's ground force. Japan will organize a similar unit, perhaps called the Central Readiness Command, to prepare and conduct operations with the U.S. Army.
Japanese officials are considering elevating the Self-Defense Agency to a ministry and renaming Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force as the Japanese Army; same for the navy and air force. Shedding those postwar names would reflect Japan's emergence from its pacifist cocoon.
In South Korea, the U.S. plans to disband the 8th Army, which has been there since the Korean War of 1950-53, to relinquish command of Korean troops to the Koreans and to minimize or eliminate the United Nations Command set up during the Korean War.
A smaller tactical command will oversee U.S. forces that remain in Korea, which will be down to 25,000 from 37,000 in 2008. That may be cut further since Seoul has denied the U.S. the "strategic flexibility" to dispatch U.S. forces from Korea to contingencies elsewhere.
MARINE CORPS: The Marines, who have a war-fighting center in Hawaii, will move the headquarters of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) to Guam from Okinawa to reduce the friction caused by the U.S. "footprint" on that Japanese island. How many Marines would move was not clear, but combat battalions will continue to rotate to Okinawa from the United States.
Some U.S. officers are displeased because local politics rather than military necessity dictated the move. They asserted that the Tokyo government, despite its desire to "reduce the burden" on Okinawans, has blocked U.S. attempts to move forces to other bases in Japan.
Other officers saw an advantage to having III MEF in Guam. If a Japanese government sought to restrict the movement of U.S. forces, III MEF would be able to operate without reference to Tokyo.
AIR FORCE: The 13th Air Force moved to Hawaii from Guam in May to give that service a war-fighting headquarters like those of the other services. General Paul V. Hester, commander of the Pacific Air Forces, was quoted in press reports: "We're building an air operations center and war-fighting headquarters that serves the entire Pacific region."
The Air Force plans to establish a strike force on Guam that will include six bombers and 48 fighters rotating there from U.S. bases. In addition, 12 refueling aircraft essential to long-range projection of air power will be stationed at Guam's Andersen Air Force Base.
Further, three Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft will be based on Guam. Global Hawks can range more than 19,000 kilometers, at altitudes up to 21,000 meters, for 35 hours, which means they can cover Asia from Bangkok to Beijing with sensors making images of more than 100,000 sq. kilometers a day.
In Japan, the Air Force is willing to share Yokota Air Force Base, west of Tokyo, with Japan's Air Self-Defense Force but has resisted opening the base to civilian aircraft, citing security concerns. Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has demanded such rights.
NAVY: Kitty Hawk, the conventionally powered aircraft carrier based at Yokosuka, Japan, is scheduled to be replaced by 2008. The U.S. wants to station a nuclear-powered carrier there, although some Japanese politicians would prefer the last of the conventionally powered carriers, John F. Kennedy.
The Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, whose war-fighting element is Joint Task Force 519, has moved three attack submarines to Guam to put it closer to the Western Pacific and will probably be assigned an additional carrier from the Atlantic to be based at Pearl Harbor.
All in all, these changes will take upwards of three years to complete during which time Beijing can be expected to object in no uncertain terms.
Richard Halloran, formerly a correspondent for Business Week, The Washington Post and The New York Times, is a freelance journalist.
The Japan Times: June 12, 2005
Ping!
I have this nightmare belief, that one day, we're going to wake up, and out of the blue we'll see the Chinese on our western coast with a full-fledged invasion and we won't be prepared for it.
U.S. population has 100 million guns(or is it 200 million?) U.S. 'gun nuts' can kill their troops many times over.
I wouldn't worry too much. I think the USN would take exception to that scenario.
They'd have to attack guam etc first before getting here. If not, they'd be leaving the back door to the mainland WIDE open.
Estimated at over 500 million guns and several billion rounds of ammo amongst the US citizenry.
OK, if that is the case, Chinese troops on American soil are more doomed than I thought.:-)
We shall never fall to invasion IMHO so lang as we are true to our roots (moral values, liberty and gun ownership rights), unless it is due to a horrible internal struggle that allows some foe to get advantage over us.
China is a land-based military power
If ever they should get the urge to conquer, it would be a zillion times easier for them to attack across their borders, their neighbours like Laos, Cambodia, Thailand , Malaysia and Singapore
A lighting strike across the Asian land-mass, would bring them all the way to the tip of the peninsula, and then they could place all their SRBMs and MRBMs along the entire Asian coast to threaten shipping lanes around ther
Why would they then need to commit suicide by trying to invade the US ????????????????????
Honestly.. I don't know what a bunch of guys, half-retired with their 30-06 rifles and 12 gauge shotguns are going to do against 100 million ChiComs.
100 million? There can't be that many. At most a few millions. Unless you invent something like 'Star Gate.' :-) Besides, defenders have home field advantage. They know the terrain, and the environment in general. Cut their supply line, and the war of attrition would take care of it. If they are in America, they would really have the resupply problem.
RE: Japanese officials are considering elevating the Self-Defense Agency to a ministry and renaming Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force as the Japanese Army; same for the navy and air force. Shedding those postwar names would reflect Japan's emergence from its pacifist cocoon.
Yeeeeeee ha! Long overdue, IMHO!
My own nightmare is a lot less than that, but still bad. Mine is that, one day, all in the same day, IRBMs, cruise missiles and the odd spec ops guy from the PLA and other Axis forces, blow away Guam, Okinawa, Diego Garcia, and various bases in Japan and Taiwan. The PLA surges down the newly constructed Kunming - Bangkok Highway and also, expeditionary forces of joint PLA-Myanmar-Pakistan troops jump down onto the Isthmus of Kra in order to soften up Southern Thailand and Northern Malaysia. A day later, the mass of invasion forces that have by now secured and passed Bangkok meet the expeditionary forces and their mantra is "Singapore or bust." Meanwhile, across the Middle East, war has also broken out and South Korea is getting pounded. In Europe, with shock and awe, Russians, and Belarussians are surging toward Berlin and Vienna. The tac nukes in Kaliningrad have been unleashed on all NATO targets within their range. Meanwhile, CONUS we are getting hit by 100 9/11s ranging from attacks on small towns to big jobs on major targets. Confused and somewhat in disbelief about reports we are getting from Europe, we ask the Russians for help and they laugh. Their final comment is something to the effect of "even we could not believe how many supposed conservatives in your country down played the 7/16/2001 treaty and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. We are now your masters. If you do not comply, the missiles shall fly within the hour"
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I wonder why so many of the West's SO CALLED analysts fail to understand this?
FYI ... similar to your scenario.
All they need to do is buy off enough Taiwanese politicians, and their #1 goal will be accomplished without firing a shot. China wants to dominate Asia, not destroy the US. First strike scenarios make good fiction, but the Chinese are much more subtle than that.
As long as they don't call it the "Imperial Japanese Army". ;-)
It is not about first strike, but about MAD and its resulting boost of Chinese influence.
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