Now, having spent 2010-2011 there I can personally say that the Afghans were not yet close to being able to stabilize themselves independently. Our daily patrols consisted of two forms of troop leading procedures (TLPs) that my NCOs and I implemented, one for ourselves and one for the Afghan National Army (ANA) Soldiers we had assigned. It got to the point where we had to visually inspect their weapons systems wether crew served or individual because they would be negligently discharging their weapons all the time. They would literally shoot into the neighboring villages on accident no joke.

While the Secretaryy of Defense certainly has a tactical view that I didn’t have, those same Soldiers assigned to us were by Afghan standards as being pretty good. We also were blessed to have Afghan Special Forces along side us on occasions which were under the direct instruction of our own Green Berets for 10 years and those men could stand next to my Infantryman.

There is also a clear threat to the Afghan Security Forces (ANSF) of infiltration by the Taliban, countless attacks on NATO forces have occurred from internal forces. While the ANA and ANSF have very capable Soldiers and leaders they are not yet ready, again in my opinion to stand alone and maintain 360 security internally.

(First pic is one of my Team Leaders pulling security while an Afghan Policeman  doodles, second pic is of me on my first patrol in Afghanistan inside a small outpost in eastern Afghanistan before a patrol, one of my last smiles in country)

Like any good military operation this one will be planned, re planned, implemented and than when all hell breaks loose re thought in a great after action review. Problem with this operation is that it has cost thousands of US, NATO and Afghan lives to get this far, and we hope as any good Soldier that our leaders are doing right by those who make policy, we of course implement it.

In the spirit or global reach, the US Military for the next year will conduct operations on exactly the same budget. Secretary Panetta took over the Department of Defense and was immediately charged by the President with cutting Defense spending over the next 10 years. The leading Democrat on the Senate Representative Adam Smith announced yesterday that the budget would hold steady at last years $513 billion mark.

What will be most interesting is how the distribution of funding will be when it is released in the next few weeks. Many major programs are facing the chopping block  and the first to feel it was the cancellation this week of the expensive Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk program. With an individual price tag of $214 million,  the retiring of the fleet leaves open questions to unmanned global surveillance and a possible return to the aging manned U2 fleet which provided ISR capabilities for 50 years. The ripple effects may be felt in the Navy’s variant of the Global Hawk and possibly have small effects in Defense giant Northrup Grumman the sole producer of the Hawks.

The reduction in forces is concerning to the Army and Marine Corps since both services have had to rely heavily on their active duty and reserve forces for Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. The BCT model has worked extremely well for the Army in the constant rotation of forces in and out of both theaters of operation and the Marines have felt the stress of this long term fight as well and succeeded in their deployment scheduling with only four divisions total.

The overall 8% (approx $489 Billion) reduction in defense spending over the next ten years will drastically effect guys and gals on the ground. The general format of the national defense strategy is also being reduced or dynamically changed by the Obama Administration and will certainly trickle down to the strong defense industry in the US.

This concept of doing more with less is something known to those in the military on an operational scale but, how does this play out on the tactical scale. With so much money being cut, and fewer Joes to do the job in the Army and Marines what is the alternative? More unmanned systems… more ISR capabilities. The unmanned resupply is currently underway in Afghanistan but what will the future hold…

I guess we will have to hold our breaths for a few more weeks until the budget comes out and hope for the best in the how the money is doled out!!!

Each branch will face its own unique internal battle in determining ways to tighten funding belts. The internal battles over who gets what has been going on for months now but, given the significant footprint draw down in Iraq and pending in Afghanistan, the Services will be able to get back to peacetime operations and spending at the same time. Defense cuts may affect operational capabilities, research and development, manpower or even abilities to operate in such a diverse and widespread as witnessed in Afghanistan and Iraq and the last decade. For the foreseeable military funding future, tough choices will be made by leaders on which programs to continue with and which to scrap. Some are blatantly obvious while others will be difficult decisions for the branch Chiefs and Secretaries who are in charge.

A great article was written this weekend in the Washington Post  http://tinyurl.com/84adqro  which quoted the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James F. Amos talking about how the Marine Corps for one, needs to return to it’s core fundamentals,  expeditionary operations. This is true for all of the services, returning to their basic operational structure while simultaneously preparing for future unknowns. For the Marine Corps according to General Amos it will be returning to constant rotations in the Pacific both in Japan and Australia to reaffirm their amphibious expeditionary operations. Australia for one is a great ally for training and combat. An annual exercise which is run on the Australian coastline includes elements of all the US Military and our Aussie counterparts in large scale operations. Talisman Sabre is a great event which is run every summer and surely puts lots of Marines back to sea to take a beach head in addition to elements of the US Army dropping in from above. It will be very interesting to see how this may shape up in the next few decades of funding and the ever important operational tie in.

I had the pleasure last week of attending the first DSI professional forum in DC where military and civilian leaders discussed the future of our electronic health records or iEHR. It was amazing to hear the Air Force Surgeon General Green  speak of a topic at a level which is quite a few echelons above me. A topic which I’ve come to know well in the documenting of Line of Duty (LOD) injuries for many of my Soldiers and myself and the process in which our health records make it from a small outpost in Eastern Afghanistan to a small Air Force clinic back stateside, to a provider I’ve never met who knows all of my injuries and problems sustained in theater.

More to come on this but it was a great experience chatting with the likes of the former VA Secretary (Silver Star Recipient) and others.

Sean