Pentagon proposes involving others

Robert Burns / Associated Press | February 4 2006

WASHINGTON -- In a new blueprint for U.S. defenses, the Pentagon proposes not only to build better weapons but to work more closely with other countries so they can do more to help win the war on terror.

"We know we cannot win this long war by ourselves," Ryan Henry, the deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, told a Pentagon news conference Friday in unveiling a 92-page defense review ordered by Congress.
The report, which takes a 20-year look into the future, will be sent to Capitol Hill on Monday with President Bush's proposed $439 billion Pentagon budget for 2007.

The budget, representing a 4.8 percent increase over this year's spending, eliminates no major weapons programs and includes an 8 percent overall increase for weapons, to $84 billion, for the budget year starting Sept. 30. It excludes the Energy Department's nuclear weapons programs.

Unlike the highly detailed budget, the defense review published Friday focuses mostly on defining and diagnosing weak points in U.S. defenses. It reorients the Pentagon's strategies toward the war on terror and away from conventional threats.

Private analysts praised the review for defining the challenges ahead, but some questioned its solutions.

Michele A. Flournoy, a former Pentagon official who is now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the review makes important refinements to the way the Pentagon thinks about its missions but "failed to make the tough choices required to implement the strategy fully."
One way the U.S. military would build new partnerships is to train other armies, navies and air forces.

More officers will serve in foreign militaries to develop long-term relationships and regional expertise. Also, the Navy would create a force of small boats that can be used in inland waterways abroad to help countries build their own maritime forces.

It also calls for expanding the ranks of special operations forces.

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