The president wants to take the successful winding down of the war in Afghanistan to the voters in 2012. It will be a tough sell for Dempsey to try and curtail future large cuts in combat forces with the White House switching to full re-election mode.
Perhaps his greatest challenge will be to protect vital defense priorities from the budget cutters on both sides of the aisle in congress. Defense Secretary Gates has already targeted $500 billion in Pentagon cuts over the next 10 years. But President Obama said in his speech at George Washington University that he was seeking an additional $400 billion in cuts to fight the federal deficit. Guiding the White House and Congress in their efforts to trim the deficit without gutting necessary programs will be a thankless task, and will affect the readiness and capabilities of our military for many years to come.
The president has made it clear with his plan to cut defense so drastically that he sees a reduced role in world affairs for the United States and that we don’t need a military with our current capabilities. As Baker Spring at the Heritage Foundation points out, the coming review of defense spending “will emphasize not how the U.S. will more effectively strengthen its role in world affairs but how to diminish the U.S. role.” Dempsey will be fighting a rear guard action for the most part, but he has impressed observers in the past with his common sense approach to problems, which should hold him in good stead as he faces these challenges.
Unlike General Cartwright, Dempsey is considered a “low tech” soldier, who believes in applying timeless principles of leadership to the battlefield. A graduate of both the Army War College and General Staff College, Dempsey replaced the sophisticated war gaming that was being used by the Army with a series of seminars devoted to “producing more flexible and free-thinking officers at all levels.”
Dempsey is “deeply skeptical” of technology being able to alter the basic nature of combat. He wrote recently in the introduction to the Army’s main operating concept, “We operate where our enemies, indigenous populations, culture, politics, and religion intersect and where the fog and friction of war persists.” In the end, it comes down to boots on the ground performing their jobs under competent command leadership.
His critics claim he doesn’t think as much as he should about future warfare and that he is too narrowly focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is significant that Dempsey was named to command the 7th Army in Europe, but never took the job because of an opening caused by the retirement of Central Command chief Admiral Fallon in March of 2008. He became acting commander of CENTCOM before sliding into the deputy slot in October. Clearly, the Pentagon believes his knowledge of other theaters is not deficient.
President Obama said upon introducing Dempsey in the Rose Garden on Monday, “Marty, your tenure as chief may go down as one of the shortest in army history. But it is your lifetime of accomplishment that brings us here today.”
General Dempsey will need every bit of his experience and wisdom gleaned from a “lifetime of accomplishment” if he is to guide the president and the military through some contentious and dangerous times.
Rick Moran is Blog Editor of The American Thinker, and Chicago Editor of PJ Media. His personal blog is Right Wing Nuthouse.
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About General PETRAEUS :
Please correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't he the one who blamed ISRAEL for the
deaths of American soldiers in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN ???
Am I certainly glad he didn't make Chief Of Major Staffs…! ! !
And now he is hinting of running for President ???
I wish he would, as he might get at the least, the Jewsish vote, more so than
OBAMA
Gotta stop watching CNN and MSNBC, they all have their lips pressed to Obama's hemmoroids and will say any lie to marginlize good people. Remember the ad these liberal traitors did on Petraeus in the NYT as GENERAL BETRAY US. Case closed.
I'd hate to serve under a Con-Artist-in-Chief who has spent his entire life spitting on the military!!!
Seriously, how could a career military man, who knows inside info on Presidential candidates, and their history towards the military, support and endorse Barack Obama like Colin Powell did? What ever happened to Martin Luther King's, judge a person by the "content of their character" and NOT the "color of their skin?" By saying "I am voting for the first Black President" is spitting on MLK, whose "Dream" turned into a NIGHTMARE!!!
What a disappointment Colin Powell turned out to be. For this fact alone, I lost respect for him. He said as much in televised interviews that he voted for Obama because he is black. You're right. This is spitting on the very premise for which MLK jr. stood for. I have no problem with a black man being president. How about Congressman West out of Florida? His day is fast approaching. At the least, he should be appointed as Secretary of State for whoever gets elected if he decides not to run himself. A very fine example of a good American man.
Personally, I think he is a HMS Pinafore type – "I polished up my brass so carefully, now I am the head of whole army, airforce, marines, and the navy — and with Obama I never never will disagree!
I don't trust ANYONE that odumma selects. He has no idea what he is doing.
However, I AM glad that GEN Cartwright didn't get selected because he all but threw GEN Amos under the bus during the DADT fiasco. I'm confident that GEN Dempsey is nothing more than a "yes man". Described an s a "low-tech" Soldier… he won't last. The war college and the general staff college are nothing particulatily impressive, ALL COL's and GEN's have to attend these schools… That last comment, "guide the president"… HA! What a joke… on more than one level…
General Dempsey is going to be in for an interesting time with Mr. Panetta as Secretary of Defense. Yes, a very interesting time. Hopefully, General Dempsey has a high level of integrity to keep the best interests of the troops and services in mind.
Mullen’s tenure was marked by the successful surge in Iraq and the buildup in Afghanistan, as well as the controversial elimination of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay service people.
Okay…if the surge in Iraq was so successful, then why has the government of Iraq announced that it will build much closer ties with the Iranian military to strengthen the region even before the USA has removed its remaining 47,000 troops? The notion that Iraq is somehow a victory instead of a major strategic blunder is a false charade meant to deceive and delude the American people who have lost all interests in the wars now that BHO has been elected and has nearly bankrupted the country.
The same also goes for Afghanistan, as like the fantasy based nation-building mission in Iraq, the nation-building mission in Afghanistan is also fantasy based to the max and an inevitable unmitigated disaster. Yet, we are still maintaining a presence over there so that some incompetent politicians, diplomats, and military leaders can attempt to figure out a way to cover their respective inept asses. Indeed, if it were up to me I’d hold all their respective asses to account. That’s the problem, no one is ever held to account.
What the president gets in tagging Dempsey as JCS chief is a tough minded, combat tested soldier who has had some of the top commands in the army, and who has proven himself to be a genuine leader on the battlefield and a consensus builder in the slippery political world of the Pentagon.
Actually, he is an unhinged loon; otherwise he wouldn’t get the job.
Perhaps his greatest challenge will be to protect vital defense priorities from the budget cutters on both sides of the aisle in congress. Defense Secretary Gates has already targeted $500 billion in Pentagon cuts over the next 10 years. But President Obama said in his speech at George Washington University that he was seeking an additional $400 billion in cuts to fight the federal deficit. Guiding the White House and Congress in their efforts to trim the deficit without gutting necessary programs will be a thankless task, and will affect the readiness and capabilities of our military for many years to come.
Never mind the fact that WWIII, which could be easily avoided, is just around the corner and will make WWII seem like a pleasant picnic in the park.
Dempsey replaced the sophisticated war gaming that was being used by the Army with a series of seminars devoted to “producing more flexible and free-thinking officers at all levels.”
If they were truly freethinking individuals they would readily admit that Afghanistan and Iraq have been the two biggest strategic blunders in American history, but of course they would lose their jobs. Thus, the USA will continue repeating its insanity ad nauseum.
His critics claim he doesn’t think as much as he should about future warfare and that he is too narrowly focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That is an understatement.