Allen Vows to Emulate Petraeus’ Leadership

By Lisa Daniel

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2011 – If he becomes the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John R. Allen said he’ll seek to equal the strong leadership of his predecessor, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus.

“If confirmed, I will seek to emulate General Petraeus’ resolute leadership,” Allen said today during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Petraeus appeared before the committee last week for his confirmation hearing to become President Barack Obama’s CIA director, replacing Leon Panetta, who becomes defense secretary on July 1.

“I assure you, I will do whatever I can to provide our forces with everything they need in Afghanistan and [for them] to arrive home safely,” Allen said.

The general told the senators he did not participate in military recommendations that led to Obama’s decision this month to bring home all 33,000 U.S. surge forces from Afghanistan by September 2012, but he agrees with it. The redeployment of 10,000 of those troops this year will begin next month.

“The troops that will be redeployed in July represent the fulfillment of the president’s commitment to both resource the strategy he enunciated at West Point [in December 2009], but also to demonstrate to Afghan leadership the urgency of increased Afghan national security force strength and capability to assume its proper role in securing Afghanistan,” he said.

Allen noted that 68,000 U.S. troops and tens of thousands of NATO forces will remain in Afghanistan after the surge forces redeploy. He added under questioning that it will be enough to continue counterinsurgency operations there, and that if confirmed, he will monitor the drawdown closely.

“It is my intention, as commander, to monitor that progress,” he said. “Should I become concerned that our ability to accomplish our objectives is threatened, I will give forthright recommendations up the chain of command.”

Allen recently became a special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after serving as deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters. He was the deputy commanding general of Multinational Force Iraq – West and commanded the II Marine Expeditionary Force in Anbar province, Iraq, from 2006 to 2008.

If confirmed as commander in Afghanistan, Allen said he looks forward to serving again with Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the new ambassador in Afghanistan, and will “fully synchronize” military and civilian efforts there.

Based on his recent time in Afghanistan, Allen said, he agrees with assessments that U.S. and NATO forces have made significant progress there, but that challenges remain.

Afghan and coalition forces control much of the battle space in Afghanistan, including the capital of Kabul, which consists of one-fifth of the population, as well as other population centers in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, the general said.

Military operations increasingly are being led by Afghan forces, which are on track in a surge of their own to meet a goal of 305,000 troops later this year, Allen said.

Asked about the importance of Afghan forces taking over security, Allen said, “It’s essential to the strategy.”

The Afghans also are making much progress in getting Afghan men to leave the insurgency and reintegrate into Afghan society, the general said. About 1,900 Afghan men have been reintegrated from the insurgency and about 3,000 more are waiting reintegration, he said.

Still, “there are significant challenges” in Afghanistan, Allen said, including the need for more operational training and literacy education, and the need to get rid of government corruption in Afghanistan and insurgent safe havens in Pakistan. NATO still needs about 480 more trainers for Afghan troops, he said.

“There are significant challenges, but I believe in the current campaign, … the objectives are attainable,” he said.

Mullen: Army Looks to War College for Leaders

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2011 – If the military takes care of its people and their families, then the future will be assured no matter what it brings, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told students at the Army War College today.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen spoke at the Commandant’s Lecture Series at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. He told the students that they cannot underestimate the scope of the change the military has been through in the past 10 years.

”We’re depending on leadership in these extraordinarily challenges times,” he said. The past decade has changed the services and now is the time to sort through that change to answer the question of “who we are right now,” he said.

The military has gone through rough times in the past decade, he said. He challenged the students to examine the change and see if “the ethical compass is true, is our overall compass true? Where are we going in the future? What have our young ones … learned about us that we need to address as leaders, and what do we need to teach them as they mature? Are we keeping our best young officers?”

The chairman said that as budget time approaches, most people measure it in the missions given and the equipment bought. “The missions and stuff make no difference in our health in the future,” he said. “(Our future is) guaranteed in terms of good health if we keep the right people.”

One fundamental change in the military over the last decade is the role that military families have played and the relationship of the services with those families. He said a ground forces junior officer in 2001, has probably deployed five or six times in the past decade, forcing families to cope with long absences.

The services have put in place programs to help families and redeploying personnel. But as budget pressures begin to grow – and they are growing now, Mullen said – the family programs are the first to unwind.

“I don’t want to do that,” he said. “I think we would do that at our peril. The challenges keep coming and we can’t seem to get them off the plate.

In yesteryear an issue would come up, we’d deal with it as a country and we’d move on,” Mullen added. “Now the plate isn’t getting any bigger, but they won’t go away. You as the future leaders of our military must understand it.”

The chairman discussed the nature of the change and the issues around the world. He told the students – almost all of whom served multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan – that the military must continue to change and adjust.

He said they need to examine all of the world. The preponderance of resources today flow to U.S. Central Command, Mullen said. As it should with American troops are involved in two conflicts there. “But this means there is an inability to invest in small ways in other parts of the world, and if this continues, this can be very dangerous,” he said.

He told the students that American forces will be out of Iraq at the end of the year, and said those who served there should be proud of the work they did. “There is a night and day difference every time I visit,” he said. Iraq has formed a government and they are dealing with politics and not with war as they move forward.

The major U.S. effort is now, of course, in Afghanistan. “In a very tough fight, but it’s better there,” Mullen said. “But as I said many times it’s not just security, there has to be a level of legitimacy in the government of Afghanistan. That’s got to be created over the next three to four years.”

Mullen also praised the efforts of Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell’s NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan. He said they have built the training infrastructure, trained the instructors and developed the curricula for the Afghan Army and police. “On average we have 30,000 to 35,000 trainees at one time,” he said. “Two years ago that number was miniscule.”

This was Mullen’s third trip to the Army War College, and he spoke of his 43-year career. “To cycle from the war we were in when I was first commissioned, to the wars we are in in the last decade in a position of leadership has truly been an extraordinary opportunity,” he said. “It’s been a great ride.”

New Strategy Calls for Redefined Leadership

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2011 – The first revision in seven years of the National Military Strategy calls for redefining leadership in a changing world.

The document released here today is the first revision since 2004 of the ways and means that the military will advance U.S. national interests. It builds on the 2010 National Security Strategy and the objectives in the latest Quadrennial Defense Review.

“Our military power is most effective when employed in support and in concert with other elements of power as part of whole-of-nation approaches to foreign policy,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in the strategy. “This strategy is designed to meet the expectations of the American people that their military reflect the best of this great nation at home and abroad.”

Changing leadership in this whole-of-nation concept is key to the strategy. “This strategy acknowledges the need for military leadership that is redefined for an increasingly complex strategic environment,” it says. Military leadership will emphasize mutual responsibility and respect and will require a full spectrum of leadership approaches – facilitator, enabler, convener and guarantor.

The National Military Objectives are designed to counter violent extremism, deter and defeat aggression, strengthen international and regional security and shape the future force.

Violent extremism directly threatens Americans, their way of life, and America’s vital interests, the strategy says. Al-Qaida is the main group, and it remains a threat. The military will continue to work with NATO and allies in Afghanistan to pursue the Taliban, strengthen the Afghan government, and train and equip Afghan security forces.

Violent extremists work in other parts of the globe from Colombia to Indonesia and Chechnya to Somalia. The international community must address the root cause of driving people toward extremism, the strategy says. Operations to kill terrorists buy time but aren’t decisive, it says.

“We must continue to support and facilitate whole-of-nation approaches to countering extremism that seek and sustain regional partnerships with responsible states to erode terrorists’ support and sources or legitimacy,” the strategy says.

Deterrence is not just a strategy left over from the Cold War. As long as nuclear weapons exist, the United States must maintain a credible deterrence force against weapons of mass destruction.

But deterrence doesn’t always work, and the military mission must remain to fight and win wars. The United States must counter potential adversaries with anti-access and other strategies that include defending space and cyberspace.

The biggest change in the strategy is the emphasis on strengthening international and regional security. Under the revision, the United States can stand alone if needed, but the strategy sees the future in coalitions. U.S. forces will remain globally positioned, and be able to use foreign bases, ports and airfields.

The United States will continue to work with responsible countries and in alliances. NATO will remain its bedrock alliance, but Americans will work with the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other groups to promote military-to-military relations.

A senior military official speaking on background said the Asia-Pacific will be of greater importance. “There are two rising powers – India and China – and a number of regionally powerful nations,” he said.

There may be a migration of U.S. capabilities in the region. “That may not necessarily mean more troops, but the distribution may change,” he said.

People are the beating heart that put sinews into the strategy. “To shape the future force, we must grow leaders who can truly out-think and out-innovate adversaries while gaining trust, understanding and cooperation from our partners in an ever more complex and dynamic environment,” the strategy says.

Leaders must be flexible, agile and adaptable, it says.

The strategy also reminds that nations incur a debt to those who serve. “Just as our service members commit to the nation when they volunteer to serve, we incur an equally binding pledge to return them to society as better citizens,” it says. “We must safeguard service members’ pay and benefits, provide family support and care for our wounded warriors.”