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U.S. Defense Plan Includes Anti-WMD Efforts
The United States issued its latest Quadrennial Defense Review on Friday, calling for new efforts against weapons of mass destruction in the 20-year military strategy (see GSN, Feb. 2). The plan, the first issued since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: includes four new goals: overcoming terrorist organizations; countering weapons of mass destruction; boosting homeland defense; and avoiding conflict with world powers including China, India and Russia. Specific plans include spending $1.5 billion against an act of biological terrorism and boosting the Special Operations Forces by 15 percent, the Washington Post reported. There are now 52,000 SOF personnel. The plan calls for boosting Army Special Forces by one-third; increasing Navy SEAL teams; adding 3,500 people to civil affairs and psychological operations units; and developing a Marine Corps force to conduct attacks, reconnaissance and training of foreign military personnel. “SOF will increase their capacity to perform more demanding and specialized tasks, especially long-duration, indirect and clandestine operations in politically sensitive environments and denied areas,” the report states. “SOF will have the capacity to operate in dozens of countries simultaneously,” it adds. Small teams would be used to “detect, locate and render safe” nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and to keep such weapons from being delivered by rogue states to terrorists, the Post reported (Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post, Feb. 4). “The U.S. will use peaceful and cooperative means whenever possible, but will employ force when necessary” to block such WMD transfers, the report states. It identifies Iran and North Korea as WMD dangers, Bloomberg reported. Pyongyang has looked to develop nuclear and biological weapons, while delivering WMD technology to other countries, the report states. “These actors may not respond to traditional tools and concepts of deterrence,” the report states. “In the event of a conflict, WMD-armed states could use their weapons against the U.S., or its allies pre-emptively, during conflict or to slow follow-on stabilization efforts” (Bloomberg, Feb.6). China, meanwhile, “has the greatest potential [among present and emerging international powers] to complete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that over time offset traditional U.S. military advantages absent U.S. counterstrategies,” according to the report. Chinese has been building up its military since 1996, with money going toward ballistic missiles, land- and sea-based strategic nuclear missiles, new submarines and a host of other equipment, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse, Feb. 3). Critics argue that the U.S. plan fails to adequately increase military personnel to allow for situations similar to Iraq, Knight Ridder reported. The Pentagon effort also fails to reduce spending for conventional warfare weaponry to allow for greater focus on antiterrorism, they said (Drew Brown, Knight Ridder/St. Paul Pioneer Press, Feb. 4).
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