In March, the United States plans to send elements of the Second Brigade, First Infantry Division, to Africa (under AFRICOM) to conduct over a hundred different missions in 34 nations, such as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and training indigenous forces. (source:
Washington Times) The Second Brigade is a heavy brigade equipped with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled artillery, mind you, not a light infantry brigade or Special Forces unit. As a result of the deployment, their training on these systems in a wartime scenario will most likely suffer.
We are also a bankrupt nation, yet spending millions deploying portions of our military to areas that are not critical to our national security. Sounds to me like we may have found a portion of the national budget we can cut if our military has nothing better to do than hand out humanitarian assistance and wait for natural disasters in some far off land.
Our tax dollars need to instead be spent on our
military defense, not on ambiguous blanket missions of doing everything
except the defense of our nation. We need to get ourselves out of this recession/depression first before we should even consider doing a mission like that of the 2nd Brigade in Africa. The national debt is the biggest threat to our national security, not some non-existent disaster in Africa.
We must ask ourselves: Are the Armed Forces of the United States serving as the military force of the United Nations/World Government, or are they protecting America and its citizens?
As an organization, the US military is slowly being forced to reject its original foundation of the Christian faith and in its place accept humanism, as evidenced by the removal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy allowing for open homosexual behavior in the ranks. Even the mere presence of religion in military organizations is under attack from organizations such as the
Military Religious Freedom Foundation who espouse a perverted interpretation of the First Amendment.
A key component of humanism is relativism, where there is no absolute truth. This has in part led to the development of
a manual in Afghanistan that blames our own troops' insensitivity to the Islamic culture for causing the green on blue violence in that nation, rather than blaming the true source--Islamic jihad.
Furthermore, our military is confused as to who the enemy is. They are
attacked by a jihadi at Fort Hood and it is called "workplace violence." Russian military forces are
invited in our borders to participate in "counter-terrorism" exercises. We are aiding and abetting the
rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East, an organization that intends to
re-establish a hostile Caliphate and destroy America. One of our
Ambassadors is slain in North Africa while the military is forbidden from coming to his aid. We kill al Qaeda operatives in Yemen (for Saudi Arabia?), while supporting them and their allies in Syria and Libya.
Military leadership has been involved in
suppressing the First Amendment rights of United States citizens when it comes to speech against Islam, and have
publicly humiliated a fellow officer for teaching the threat that Islam presents. Then they "pivot to the Pacific," however
China is not considered a threat but
Iran in the Middle East remains so. Then some in our government talk about
unilaterally reducing our nuclear arsenal to below 300 weapons while
Russia is modernizing and exercising their nuclear triad.
Who is the enemy???
We need to get our military back on track and fast. They are all over the world "chasing Indians," disasters, and handing out humanitarian assistance. They need to be focused on the one thing they need to get right--defending our nation against existential threats. They need to be preparing for war, and they need a clear vision as to who are the enemies of America. With the imminent reduction in the military budget, this becomes all the more critical.
--Against All Enemies
Aims for quick crisis response
By Kristina Wong - The Washington Times, Sunday, December 23, 2012
As part of
Gen. Odierno’s Regionally Aligned Forces concept, about 1,200 soldiers will deploy to Africa as early as March in an effort to place troops strategically around the globe to respond quickly to sudden challenges in hot spots such as
Libya and to develop ties with the people and officials in host countries.
“It’s about us moving towards a scalable, tailorable capability that helps them to shape the environment they’re working in, doing a variety of tasks from building partner capability to engagement, to multilateral training to bilateral training to actual deployment of forces, if necessary,”
Gen. Odierno said in an interview.
Amid budget cuts and with President Obama’s new military strategy downplaying the chances of another major land war, the
Army has sought to maintain its relevance among admirals and generals in the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa — likely places for the next flash point. When terrorists attacked the
U.S. Consulate in Benghazi,
Libya, on Sept. 11, no U.S. troops were close enough to help.
[...]
Ready, responsive
Beginning in March, small teams of soldiers from the 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team,
1st Infantry Division, based in Fort Riley, Kan., will conduct at least 108 missions in at least 34 countries in Africa through mid-2014.
The missions could include humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, training host-nation forces in marksmanship, first aid and other skills, and conducting military exercises. To prepare for these missions, soldiers are studying the regions and cultures of countries where they will deploy, and learning Arabic, Swahili, French and Portuguese.
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