Posted on 05/28/2009 5:34:54 PM PDT by xzins
WASHIGTON – It would take the Army time to "shift gears" if it needed to fight against North Korea, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Thursday.
Right now, the Army is focused on the counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but North Korea’s recent saber rattling has raised the prospect that the Army might be called upon to fight a conventional war.
"I have said publicly for some time that if we had to shift gears, it would probably take us about 90 days or so to shift our gears and to train the folks up that were preparing to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to go someplace else," Casey said after a speech at a Washington think tank.
That doesn’t mean that it would take at least 90 days to send reinforcements to U.S. troops in South Korea, Casey said.
"We would move forces as rapidly as we could get them prepared," he said.
Casey declined to say how fast the Army could mobilize to meet a threat from North Korea, but he stressed the Army is "combat seasoned" and can move quickly.
"The mechanical skills of artillery gunnery and tank gunnery come back very, very quickly," he said. "The harder part is the integration — that really brigade level and above of massing fires and effects in a very constricted period of time as opposed to what you do in a counterinsurgency over a much longer extended period of time."
Looking to the future, Casey said he expects conflicts this century to look a lot like the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the Israeli war with Hezbollah in 2006.
Regarding the latter, Casey noted that the key lesson the Israelis learned was that they were too focused on irregular warfare.
"They were working so much in the West Bank and conducting counterinsurgency-like operations that they lost their combined arms skills, the ability to integrate fires in air and tanks and artillery," he said.
The U.S. Army needs to be prepared for the "full spectrum" operations ranging from offensive, defensive and stability operations, he said.
Casey expressed confidence that the U.S. Army can fight and win a conventional war against North Korea given its experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I’m not afraid of putting this force in the field against anybody," he said.
Yes. To all the above. Which is why it's so dangerous to have a rank amateur at the helm at times like this. We barely made it out of the Kennedy administration in one piece. This is a far more complicated world, despite not having Soviet Union in it anymore.
Nice point about on our own border. Thats all ive heard about CHinese concern, that they wouldnt want Americans permanently in their own border. They want some kind of buffer. Seems like that could be worked out beyween us and them.
Now, as i adjust my foil hat, i think money will rule in the end. China wont do anything that ruins their trade with the USA. And we won’t do anything that makes China angry, such that they stop financing our Obama debt. In the middle of it all is little Kim the gangster, who has figured out an easy way to make cash on it all, with just a little blustery show.
Hey Mr. Kim I know you’ve just invaded Seoul but can we postpone this war thing for 3 months??
Maybe Obama will be the next President to use nukes?
almost forces the wussy to use nukes and look like a hero
Zero is a girlie man. He’s even afraid to use our missile defense.
“I believe NK would only start a war in order to prevent a total internal collapse”
Astute point. Suicide makes sense when you are about to die anyway. I got to admit, there could be turmoil and a power struggle when Kim dies, he isnt a young man. His succession isnt nearly as clear to see, as his was after his father died.
You are right, they will use everything they have hard and fast, And they have the knowledge they have nothing to fear from the zero regime. We are talking about what we COULD do to them. We won’t.
My oldest boy will be in the army in August. I hope Lil Kim calms down by then.
Only into his presidency a little of 100 days and he is already worried about his legacy. IMHO ;-)
We won’t fight anybody or nuke anybody with ZerObama as potus.
The ROK’s are fully capable of holding their own against the NPRK’s. they have the weapons and the doctrine. It would be very, very bloody.
“Why do we have all these nuclear subs & B-2 bombers if we aren’t gonna use ‘em!!!”
Its a democrat jobs program.Thats all.These pieces of military equipment are just toys in the eyes of the democrats.they dare not use them to defend the U.S.Its against their nature.
With such a Cultcentric regime, a covert clandestine op to decapitate the NK leadership might be a real good way to save us from having to escalate way up the ladder.
Oh I know that. What I meant is that they’d run out of men at a sufficient rate to make the regime stability in question if they lost and a counter offensive was launched.
Well... I’m sure this whole thing has been wargamed out the yingyang at the Pentagon. I’d love to see some official scenarios, would make for an very interesting read.
Just as an FYI the same site lists the NK army as having 996K troops. This is roughly the same size as the US Army including guardsmen and reservists.
Zero is a girlie man.
Well Larry Sinclair says he likes guys.
Just about obsolete by today's standards.
That may be part of their motivation. Their hardware is only going to get worse for them in the future. They may see this as now or never.
I worry that Obama would demand a war “by the book”. A war like Vietnam was. The CinC would mandate that wholesale killing of NorKs with ultra-modern techniques would be against the rules. I’m serious.
Nk is counting on obambi to replace NK tanks with new ones and rebuild NK like we are doing to iraq.
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