Defense Articles

In charge of military intelligence in Beirut from 1982 to 2002, Gen. Ghazi Kenaan was effectively the Syrian Viceroy of Lebanon. A hardliner in the little Baathist clique around Hafez Assad, and then his son and heir Bashar Assad, Kenaan was greatly feared. His lust for power and money was legendary.

On account of his intelligence background, he was widely suspected of organizing the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. His assets in the United States have been frozen, and the United Nations investigation into the assassination of Hariri has been closing in on him. Nobody need be too surprised, then, that he has been found shot dead in his office. His career suggests that he would always take other people’s lives rather than his own-but the official Syrian word was “suicide.” A colleague of Kenaan’s, however, did not quite toe the line. Foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa, another veteran of the Assad clique, told reporters that “unjust and vague information” had contributed to the “killing”-whereupon he quickly corrected himself, “I mean the suicide.” As the KGB used to say, any fool can commit a murder, but it takes an artist to commit a suicide.

The red-cockaded woodpecker, endangered since 1970, may have a new best friend: the US military. The Pentagon is eager for you to believe it, and the claim–so far as it goes–has merit. The North Carolina Sandhills, home to the Army’s Fort Bragg, boasts one of the largest populations of the threatened bird. The Nature Conservancy has protected more than 9,000 acres of wildlife habitat around the base, with funding from the US Department of Defense (DoD).

The unlikely partnership represents the Pentagon’s “new commitment” to environmental sustainability. And efforts are being made: In 2004, Congress voted $12.5 million for “cooperative conservation” projects such as Fort Bragg’s. At least 20 such projects are now in progress, with The Nature Conservancy involved in almost all. The need is clear: Military installations–ironically, the only green spaces left in some areas–harbor more than 300 endangered and threatened species.

Still, it’s duplicitous, say many environmentalists. “Publicly, the Pentagon positions itself as ‘going green.’ But behind the scenes, it’s doing all it can to avoid responsibility for the environmental damage it has already done, which threatens soldiers and civilians on its bases and the people who live nearby,” says Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which represents civilian employees on military bases.

Nearly 29 million Americans live within 10 miles of a military base slated for Superfund cleanup, and more than 100 DoD facilities are on the Superfund list of worst toxic waste sites. DoD has taken “extraordinary steps to limit the military’s accountability for a 50-year legacy of pollution,” according to an investigative series in USA Today in October 2004. At the same time that the Pentagon is publicizing campaigns about its eco-commitment, its lobbyists have won exemptions from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, and they are seeking exemptions from the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

“Clearly some environmentalists find things to criticize in how the military deals with a lot of things,” Bob Barnes, The Nature Conservancy’s senior policy administrator for its DoD projects, tells VT. “But on the conservation programs we’re involved in, environmentalists are highly supportive. And from my experience, the military has a surprisingly sophisticated attitude on environmental issues for which it gets little credit.”

Time will tell, How much time, of course, is the issue–for soldiers, civilians and red-cockaded woodpeckers.

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Alan Pell Crawford is a former congressional press secretary and US Senate speechwriter.

BEFORE CPT Paul Olsen completed his first tour in Iraq as commander of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, his wife, Erin, contemplated what life was like before her husband’s most recent deployment; the couple had spent two of the past three years living on different continents.

Erin said she spent time wondering where he was, what he was doing, and whether he was thinking of her and the baby they were expecting.

“Being married to a Soldier at war is difficult,” Erin said. But today she recognizes her relationship has reached a level many Army marriages don’t.

“I’ve seen many marriages fall apart due to the stress that deployments put on Soldiers and their families,” she said. “Life in the Army is hard, and you have to be truly committed to the other person and the life you’ve built together in order for it to last.”

Statistics provided by the Army chief of chaplains indicate that 8,367 Army couples divorced in 2005, making the Army’s divorce rate higher than that of any other military service.
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Given that fact, Army leaders are introducing new initiatives to help reduce divorce rates, improve mission readiness and enhance Soldier well-being.

“The Army has launched a tremendous number of family support programs since the war began,” said LTC Peter J. Frederich, family ministries officer for the office of the Army Chief of Chaplains.

“Strong Bonds,” a proactive and holistic marriage initiative, is among those. It provides guidance to single Soldiers, married couples, families and those facing deployment in order to stem potential problems.

“Strong Bonds is different from anything we’ve tried before, because it isn’t a counseling program,” said Frederich. “Counseling means something is wrong and we’re going to fix it. This is more of a pre-emptive education initiative.”

Strong Bonds is unit-based and calls upon commanders to provide adequate time on their training calendars to allow chaplains to come in and administer program training.

So far, survey results of the program have been positive Couples who complete it “show marked improvement in skills and habits that lead to increased marriage satisfaction and survival,” said Frederich. Additionally, the study reveals that “more than 90 percent of those who participated in Strong Bonds reported that the program was helpful and appreciated.”

“Military One Source” is another beneficial marriage-related program. It provides online consultants, articles, educational materials and other interactive tools to the military community every day, year-round.

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy John M. Molino told the American Forces Press Service that “Military One Source is a revolutionary augmentation to the family services we currently have on military installations around the world. It leverages technology and enables the Department of Defense to provide assistance to families and service members via the Internet or toll-free telephone numbers.”

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Programs like Military One Source and Strong Bonds seem to be having a significant impact on divorce statistics.

The number of Army marriages that ended in divorce when the war began in 2003 was 2.8 percent. While that number spiked to 3.9 percent in 2004, Frederich said the percentage has declined ever since and is currently less than 3.3 percent.

CPT Patrick M. Gordon, who returned from Iraq in November 2006, said that while programs are helpful, Soldiers must take the first step toward maintaining a strong marriage.

“Preparation is the key,” said Gordon, who has been married and in the military for seven years. “You must prepare the family for success.”

Gordon and his wife Michelle, who is pregnant with their first child, encourage all couples facing deployment to practice communication, mutual respect and understanding well before the deployment.

“I think you have to make sure that your spouse is prepared for deployment just like you are,” Gordon said. “Several months before I deployed, I made sure that we had a plan to cover all the angles. I think a lot of Soldiers take off and leave their spouses unprepared to deal with issues, and this can cause grief for the Soldiers, the chains of command and the spouses.”

MAJ Amy R. Johnson, who divorced her husband LTC Craig Hess in 2002 and remarried him this year, said she feared the stigma of seeking help when she experienced problems with him.

The officers married in 1996 and were separated for much of their first five years together. As much as they wanted their relationship to work, pressures of increasing job responsibilities, twins and long-term separations quickly wore on the couple’s relationship.

“We worked in an environment where many dual-military couples worked, and it was clear that we were not the only ones struggling with these issues,” Johnson said.
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A senior Chinese military official has said that while China is trying to upgrade its military capability, its arms development is purely defensive and the country does not intend to engage in any arms race, China’s state-run media reported Friday.

”We do not conceal our intention to build a strong and modern national defense,” Zhang Qinsheng, deputy chief of the general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, was quoted as saying in an interview with China Daily.

”But we also tell the world candidly that the Chinese defense policy is always defensive in nature,” he continued.

Zhang said a lack of understanding and communications has led to suspicions, concerns and criticism of China’s military development, and that China is trying to boost transparency by, for example, issuing defense white papers, according to China Daily.

The interview, carried on the front page of the newspaper, did not mention China’s test of an anti-satellite weapon last month that has triggered concern from countries such as Australia, Britain, Japan and the United States.
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Worries over the test were expressed once again in Washington on Thursday.

Richard Lawless, U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, called China’s ability in the area ”a destabilizing capability.”

In the test believed conducted Jan. 11, China fired a ballistic missile to destroy an old Chinese weather satellite.

Beijing confirmed only on Jan. 23 that it recently test-fired a missile at one of its satellites. It added the experiment posed no threat to other countries and that it has no plans for another test.

In charge of military intelligence in Beirut from 1982 to 2002, Gen. Ghazi Kenaan was effectively the Syrian Viceroy of Lebanon. A hardliner in the little Baathist clique around Hafez Assad, and then his son and heir Bashar Assad, Kenaan was greatly feared. His lust for power and money was legendary. On account of his intelligence background, he was widely suspected of organizing the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. His assets in the United States have been frozen, and the United Nations investigation into the assassination of Hariri has been closing in on him. Nobody need be too surprised, then, that he has been found shot dead in his office. His career suggests that he would always take other people’s lives rather than his own-but the official Syrian word was “suicide.” A colleague of Kenaan’s, however, did not quite toe the line. Foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa, another veteran of the Assad clique, told reporters that “unjust and vague information” had contributed to the “killing”-whereupon he quickly corrected himself, “I mean the suicide.” As the KGB used to say, any fool can commit a murder, but it takes an artist to commit a suicide.

Ralphie Parker never slept here. He did, however, take aim at imaginary nemesis Black Bart from his perch on the kitchen sink. And he was spotted through the front window once, caressing a tarted-up leg lamp. This is “A Christmas Story House,” the real Cleveland home that housed the fictional Parker family in the movie “A Christmas Story.” Now, it’s Cleveland’s newest tourist attraction. San Diego resident Brian Jones bought the house in February 2005 and has poured his heart — not to mention $240,000 — into renovating it to make it resemble the house in the movie. He’s opening it for tours and has created a gift shop and a small museum in another house across the street. In reality, A Christmas Story House is only part of what viewers remember as the Parkers’ home, the place where Ralphie schemed to get a Red Ryder BB gun. It’s really …

Ralphie Parker never slept here. He did, however, take aim at imaginary nemesis Black Bart from his perch on the kitchen sink. And he was spotted through the front window once, caressing a tarted-up leg lamp. This is called A Christmas Story House, the real Cleveland home that housed the fictional Parker family in the beloved 1983 movie A Christmas Story. Now, it’s Cleveland’s newest tourist attraction. San Diego resident Brian Jones bought the house in February 2005 and has poured his heart - not to mention $240,000 - into renovating it to make it resemble the house in the movie. He’s opening it for tours and has created a gift shop and a small museum in a house across the street. In reality, A Christmas Story House is only part of what viewers remember as the Parkers’ home, the place where Ralphie pined for a Red Ryder BB gun. …

The Military Balance in the Middle East, Anthony H. Cordesman, Praeger, Westport, CT, 2004, 560 pages, $55.00.

Anthony H. Cordesman’s The Military Balance in the Middle East is a useful, readable reference that presents a factual layout of the quantitative and qualitative trends in the military balance from the most heavily armed region of the world. Cordesman’s data comes from unclassified sources of regional and U.S. governments, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Jane’s, and the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies. He uses U.S. data to back up or refute data that host nations or other sources provided.

Cordesman is a prolific writer, with more than 20 publications on the Middle East. In this book, he includes sections on Arab-Israeli states, northern and southern Gulf nations, terrorist and extremist movements, and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He provides the reader with a good knowledge base on which to build expertise in a specific country or subregion. Given the ongoing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other potential flashpoints (Syria and Iran), the chapters on terrorist and extremist movements and proliferation of WMD are the most useful to military readers. Serious students of the Middle East should have this reference.

When I applied to colleges, I didn’t have the usual lists of “reach” and “safety” schools. I had only one school in mind: the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Getting into West Point–or the Naval Academy, the Coast Guard Academy or the Air Force Academy–is a bit like running an obstacle course. In addition to the usual progression of the SAT, essays and teacher recommendations, the process requires three steps. First is a thorough physical, with the results reviewed by a government review board. Next is a six-event physical-fitness test. Finally, candidates must be nominated by a member of Congress or the vice president. And for the students who are admitted, the commitment extends well beyond four years. Although I’m receiving my education free of charge, when I graduate I will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S.

For Christmas a family member gave me a copy of Malcolm

Gladwell’s 2000 book The Tipping Point, knowing that I admired Gladwell’s reporting for The New Yorker magazine. (Gladwell cut his journalistic teeth covering the AIDS epidemic for The Washington Post in the late 1980s.) The Tipping Point looks at how something that only a few people are thinking about one day–say, the iPod, or “dignity and respect” for gay people, or Brokeback Mountain–suddenly morphs into something it seems that everyone is embracing. Change, he writes, often occurs like an epidemic: simmering away for months or decades, then blanketing the nation.

Gladwell traces some fascinating case studies–Sesame Street, the drop in crime in New York City in the mid 1990s–and offers a number of smart suggestions about what conditions are typically met before a “tipping point,” the moment when a trend becomes a phenomenon, when mere possibility becomes reality.

The book’s applications to the quest for LGBT equality are self-evident. Take antigay discrimination, for example: In the United States, at least, we’ve passed the tipping point at which it became socially unacceptable to discriminate against gays and lesbians–in most situations. I’d guess that it happened sometime soon after 1990, largely a result of the years of increased visibility resulting from the AIDS crisis. That and many decades of hard, unheralded work, education, sacrifice, and protests by countless thousands of activists.

The tipping points for marriage equality, full parenting rights, and fairness in the U.S. military remain ahead of us. But one of these fundamental changes now seems within easy reach: the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy that forbids gay and lesbian service members from revealing their sexuality during their tour of duty. Polls consistently show that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the policy, and anecdotal evidence suggests that most soldiers are unfazed by having gays in the barracks. The last domino to fall will be the military brass and the political allies of the current commander in chief, all of whom cling to a long-disproved myth about “unit cohesion” that’s really just a thin veil for rank dislike of homosexuals.

The efforts of the LGBT veterans who are organizing the Call to Duty tour, featured in this issue’s cover story [page 48] and beginning February 20, will push us closer to that tipping point. They’re just what this debate needs–proud, tough, gay models of military dedication–and they’re taking their stellar records and palpable love of the military directly to the conservatives whose support we must have to bring justice to our fighting forces.

Will they push us past the tipping point? Can our nation’s need for military readiness in Iraq, at home, and elsewhere overcome the congressional majority’s general distaste for doing anything that smacks of fairness for LGBT Americans? When will the Joint Chiefs and the president set aside their antiquated prejudices in order to do what’s best for our armed forces and for our country’s security? It will happen. There will be a tipping point. But when?

On this point Malcolm Gladwell can’t help us. He does a brilliant job assessing past tipping points but can’t create a model that will predict future change. No one can. All we can do is keep up the pressure and know that someday soon the truth will win out. And that future generations will marvel that a ban ever existed at all. *