-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! ARTICLE 1 Pentagon Scales Back Expectations For Dramatic Change in Defense Ed.: Hope they’re not reinventing the wheel at a higher cost. Source: Associated Press, 05/30/01. WASHINGTON (AP) - The big Defense Department shake-up some expected when President George W. Bush took office - after campaigning on a pledge to modernize the military and repair morale - is looking less likely. Or at least it is slower in coming. A spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that the policy reviews he undertook three months ago to fashion a new approach to defense are likely to produce less dramatic results than commonly believed. ``I think there was a widespread perception that there would be many more near-term announcements of dramatic change than what we're actually going to see,'' said Rear Adm. Craig Quigley. Originally, there was anxiety in the defense industry and among the military services that Rumsfeld would take an ax to major weapons programs like the Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter, the Marine Corps' V-22 Osprey aircraft or the Navy's DD-21 new-generation destroyer. More recently, the Army has fretted over rumors that Rumsfeld would make troop cuts. Congress worried about military bases being closed. In fact, there have been no dramatic changes yet. Even for one of Bush's highest national security priorities - missile defense - Rumsfeld has yet to come up with specific program changes. In a sign of the uncertainty facing U.S. military leaders, Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Wednesday postponed a planned trip to India so that he could attend a series of closed-door meetings this week with Rumsfeld and the service chiefs. They will meet each day this week, culminating in a Saturday session to be attended also by the war-fighting commanders. ``The chairman felt these are extremely important (meetings) in helping to determine the future of U.S. forces over the next several years,'' said Shelton's spokesman, Navy Capt. T.L. McCreary. Shelton hopes to make the India trip later, McCreary said. Some private analysts who have monitored Rumsfeld's reviews think the Bush administration's approach to defense will turn out more like the Clinton administration's than anyone might have believed even a few weeks ago. ``The new Pentagon team has basically been reinventing the wheel,'' says Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a think tank. ``It is gradually backing into all the beliefs about geopolitical, technological and managerial trends that the Clinton team had arrived at after eight laborious years.'' The main difference, Thompson believes, is that Bush will find more money to carry out his policies. ``With Democrats now in control of the Senate, the most likely outcome for defense is that Donald Rumsfeld will end up carrying out the Clinton transformation plan to fruition by adequately funding it. That's not the way he will describe it, but that is what it will amount to,'' Thompson said. Rumsfeld on Tuesday held the first in a series of meetings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to reach a consensus on how to approach yet another major review of the military; this one, known as the quadrennial defense review, or QDR, is required by law and is due to Congress by Sept. 30. The last QDR, in 1997, was based on a strategy that Bush has criticized for getting the U.S. military involved in too many peacekeeping and other non-combat missions. Bush directed Rumsfeld to come up with another strategy, but so far the defense secretary has not said publicly what it will be. ARTICLE 2 Army Ad Not Right 'One,' Foes Say Ed.: More questions if the Army of One is able to maintain required strength numbers and quality of troops. Just because prospective recruits log on doesn’t mean they’ll sign up. Source: A recent Washington Times report. By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times The Army missed its original recruiting goals for three months after the debut of its $150 million "An Army of One" ad campaign. But the Army in May lowered the recruiting targets by roughly the same number by which it had missed its goal. Officials say this was because the Army enjoyed increased re-enlistments and thus needed fewer recruits. "An Army of One" has proven to be a hotly debated media approach, both within and outside the military. The Army dumped its celebrated "Be All That You Can Be" slogan for the new theme in hopes of attracting teens and people in their 20s looking for an organization that places importance on the individual and offers multiple career paths. Critics deride the message as catering to self-centered youth and as inconsistent with the military’s principle of building unit cohesion. They point to the Army’s latest recruiting numbers as proof "An Army of One" is a flop. The new ads debuted on network TV, newspapers and magazines in mid-January. The Army achieved its recruiting goal for February but then failed to meet expectations in March, April and May, according to briefing documents obtained by The Washington Times. Recruiters missed their targets for that three-month period by 3,722 persons, taking in 15,178 against a goal of 18,900. But in May, the Army changed the targets for those three months after Army headquarters at the Pentagon dropped the year-end objective by 3,150, from 78,950 to 75,800 inductees. "We would have missed all three months," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for Army Recruiting Command. Army officials say the recruit target was dropped because the service has exceeded its goal of extending the tours of enlisted soldiers. This means fewer recruits are needed to maintain the total force, or "end strength," of about 470,000 active duty enlisted soldiers and officers. In addition to scripting new ads, the Army also began offering high school graduates thousands of dollars in bonuses in an effort to compete with colleges and private employers. Some officers told The Times that the March-May unadjusted numbers show the ad may not be working. "If you are investing that amount of dollars and we still can’t achieve our recruiting mission, this bodes extremely poorly for the ability of the Army to man the force," said one officer, who asked not to be named. Meeting recruiting expectations is especially important for the Army right now. The Pentagon has begun its Quadrennial Defense Review, a study that dictates the military’s missions and size. If the Army cannot bring in sufficient numbers of young people, the gap will bolster arguments from the other services that Army end strength should come down to save money for new major weapons systems. The Army has been advocating an increase to about 490,000 soldiers to better handle far-flung foreign operations and peacekeeping missions. The Army is counting on the Internet to attract future soldiers. Ads ask young people to go to goarmy.com, a Web site bristling with information on Army careers, basic training and recruiters. The boot camp link makes celebrities of six recruits now in their seventh week of training. It’s sort of the Army´s version of "Survivor." "See what it takes to become An Army of One," the Web page says. "Follow the lives of six recruits as this real-life Web series captures their nine-week journey from civilian to soldier. Join them each week, via video and multimedia installments, as they overcome their fears, realize their strengths and master the challenges of basic training." Some in the Army doubt that those who access goarmy.com ever contact the Army in large numbers. But Mr. Smith produced statistics to rebut that notion. He said that since the new ads debuted, daily Web page visits are up 107 percent and recruiter leads to possible applicants rose 69 percent. I think that speaks for itself," Mr. Smith said… ARTICLE 3 China's Army Practices Taking Island Ed.: And the saber rattling continues. As long as there is noise, the danger is low. A recent AP report. By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN - Associated Press BEIJING (AP) - Large-scale Chinese war games that include a practice invasion of an island near Taiwan are a warning not to underestimate Beijing's determination to use force to rein in Taiwan, state media said Friday. Taiwan's government said the drills code named ``Liberation One,'' which start this month on Dongshan island off the southeastern Chinese coast, opposite Taiwan, were routine and no cause for alarm. But they will be China's first large-scale war games since the election of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian last May and will be among the largest ever by its 2.5 million member People's Liberation Army, the state-run Beijing Morning Post said. Nearly 10,000 troops have been massed for the exercises, including missile units, amphibious tanks, submarines, warships, marine units and Russian-made Su-27 aircraft - among the most modern weapons in China's growing arsenal, the newspaper said. China dislikes Chen for his past support for Taiwanese independence and his refusal to endorse its view that China and Taiwan are one country. Taiwan and China divided in 1949, and Beijing threatens to use force to regain control over what it considers a breakaway province. The maneuvers ``demonstrate the Chinese government's determination to protect sovereignty and territorial integrity,'' the newspaper said. A report on a Web site operated by the government's Xinhua News Agency said they were ``a military warning'' to Chen's administration. It was not immediately clear if the exercises mark a shift in Beijing's attitude toward Chen, but they are a traditional method by which China registers its anger with Taiwan's leaders. Beijing has refused to speak to Chen, hoping he will be compelled into accepting its conditions for talks. But so far it has not sought to raise military tensions in the Taiwan Strait. China's Foreign Ministry described the drills as routine. ``Every country has military exercises, this is normal,'' a spokeswoman said. In Taiwan, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said such drills are regularly held by China in early summer due to favorable weather. Taiwan should not get alarmed because such exercises are standard among modern militaries and are large by nature, he said. ``We have not seen signs that the drills are a threat to Taiwan,'' said the spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity. The exercises include a mock attack on an aircraft carrier - a drill apparently designed with U.S. forces in mind. When Beijing held threatening war games and lobbed missiles into waters near Taiwan in 1996, Washington responded by sending a pair of aircraft carriers to the area. U.S.-China ties have recently soured over U.S. offers to sell Taiwan large numbers of modern weapons and President Bush's assertions that U.S. forces could be used to defend the island from Chinese attack. An April 1 mid-air collision between a U.S. Navy spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet also strained relations. Taiwan's notoriously nervous stock market players appeared to shrug off reports about the maneuvers. Taiwan shares closed 0.69 percent lower Friday but analysts said investors were rattled more by concerns about the economy and disappointing corporate earnings than Chinese saber rattling. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
