Change Hurts

Change of any kind always meets resistance. This is especially true for the oft criticized Sec. Rumsfeld, who is dealing with the biggest military transformation in decades while simultaneously fighting a global war on terrorism. This article says the reform is going forward in all services, but especially the Army:

Nowhere has the transformation been greater or more difficult to integrate into the service management philosophy than in the Army. There it involved transforming a heavy-division structure into a more mobile, brigade-oriented force equipped with Stryker armored vehicles. Gen. Cody said 43 of these new modular brigades were in various stages of being formed or deployed. The Army's first modular brigade, from the 3rd Infantry Division, was now posted to Iraq, while the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain divisions were being transformed. The Army now has 300,000 soldiers overseas in 120 countries, including 116,000 soldiers in Iraq and 14,000 in Afghanistan. The 30,000 additional troops Congress insisted be added have been integrated into the Army and will make change easier. Yet, the large commitment of troops overseas has brought an unprecedented activation of the National Guard and reserves, which today constitute 60 percent of active military forces. That imbalance, the general said, causes planners to "pull out their hair" but recommitted the Army to transformation even with its "stress on the force."

Usually change is little noticed until much later. Only after Operation Desert Storm did we begin to grasp the tremendous reforms undertaking in the post-Vietnam military, the effects of which we are still feeling to this day. Rumsfeld's reforms, while much maligned now, will someday be declare the linchpin that launched America's military into the 21st Century.