Leadership: <b>November 5, 2004</b>

November 5, 2004

The U.S. Department of Defense, responding to the experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last three years, is trying to change their methods so that, the next time around, operations will go quickly and more smoothly. To do this, staffs have been directed to develop detailed plans for getting into operations like Afghanistan or Iraq more quickly and better prepared. This means that the Department of Defense educational system is stressing, more heavily, foreign language studies, as well as familiarization with different cultures.

All elements are being told to get ready to do whatever they do faster. This is especially true for the intelligence troops, who have had a hard time keeping up during the last three years. Preparations are also underway to lobby Congress for money to buy more cargo ships and aircraft, so that troops may be moved to future hot spots more quickly.

Plans are being made to cooperate more closely with other government agencies, like the State Department, CIA, Homeland Security and Justice Department, in planning and carrying out future military operations. Its expected there will be more little wars, and more attention is being paid to things like stabilization operations (whats going on in Iraq right now), reconstruction and peacekeeping (whats going on in Afghanistan).

But beyond learning, and applying, the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan operations, the Department of Defense also wants to use new technology to enable the troops to get into, and out of, wars more quickly. Speed in warfare brings victory more quickly, and at less cost. It has always been so, and now technology enables the troops to move and fight at unprecedented speeds.