New Defense Strategy Causes Tension between Gov. and Military

As the Bush administration’ review on America’s 21st century national defense strategy is near the completion, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfelt and other high-ranking defense officials began to persuade on 17th the members of the Congress that will decide the new strategy’s destiny.

Along with secretary Rumsfel and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, State Secretary Richard Armitage met on Thursday, the chairmen and top Democrats of the Armed Services and defense Appropriations panels of both houses of Congress to explain about a draft called `Defense Strategy Review.`

But The New York Times said on 17th, that there seems to be a lot of pain for the new strategy to be passed because United States Pacific Command and other top military men, who will directly be influenced by the new strategy, are showing strong oppositions.

According to The New York Times, the main point of the new strategy which was directed by Andrew Marshall, an advisor for Rumsfeld, is that the current emphasis for Europe has to be moved to that region because China’s threat has been increased in Asia and Pacific regions due to missile system and other high-tech armament buildup.

The report stresses that U.S. is not only required to be hurry in building the Missile Defense System but also encouraged the development of long range weapons for the Navy and Air Force such as the Stealth Bomber, unmanned airplanes, and submarines.

To this report, Adm. Dennis Blair, the head of the United States Pacific Command, showed a strong skepticism to the new strategy during an interview with the New York Times by saying, ``I want to support the change on America’s defense strategy, but I think, China has not yet become a major threat to U.S. military in the region.``

The New York Times said, ``U.S. military high officials in Asia are concerned because, although the report has not revealed the detailed contents about the scale for U.S. military bases’ reduction, if the importance of the bases diminished, there will be some difficulty to gain political support from Korea and Japan for stationing of U.S. troops.`` The article also said, ``U.S. military men is insisting on the need of strengthening of unity by operating united military trainings.``

It is expected for president Bush to officially announce a new strategic plan on 25th, at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The New York Times analyzed that the reason why those high-ranking officials began persuading veteran senators who are in related committees is seemingly the foundation building work for the official announcement of the new strategy.

mickey@donga.com