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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (17004)	11/21/2003 6:44:00 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793707

INTEL DUMP Practicing judo with the Senate Armed Services Committee The New York Daily News reports that Gen. Peter Schoomaker has effectively learned how to deal with Congress -- agree with them when they criticize the military, and turn the criticism to the Army's own benefit. In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Hillary Clinton criticized a recent Pentagon study and used the occasion to argue for more pay, more benefits, and more money for Americans who serve and their families. (Not a bad way to get votes, according to this Washington Monthly story) Rather than obfuscate, obscure and tapdance, Gen. Schoomaker took ownership of the problem and did something wholly unexpected -- he agreed with Sen. Clinton. New York's junior Democrat laid into a Pentagon cost-cutting study that suggests closing dozens of schools and commissaries on bases - and won the support of Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the new Army chief of staff. "For the life of me, I do not understand this," Clinton said of the study on the viability of schools and the low-cost shops (PXs) for military families. "This sends the wrong message" in a time of war, and could hurt recruitments and reenlistments by "undermining the quality of life of our soldiers and their families," Clinton said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. To Clinton's delight, Schoomaker, the former commander of the supersecret Delta Force, was in full agreement. "It's a great point," Schoomaker told Clinton. "The issue you raise here is central to having the kind of Army we want to have," he said. "It's absolutely important for this nation" to boost morale with improved benefits for soldiers, Schoomaker said. Nice job, Gen. Schoomaker. If you can combine your political acumen with your extensive experience as a snakeeater to pry money out of Congress, the Army will be better for it. posted by Phillip at 6:23 PM An old refrain: too few MPs to go around in America's reserves Jeff Quinton passes on some news from South Carolina that ought to seem eerily familiar to those who have been following the state of America's military reserves since Sept. 11: too few Military Police units for too many missions. Immediately after Sept. 11, MPs were called up to handle force protection missions everywhere from the Pentagon to the Golden Gate Bridge. Since then, reserve MPs have taken on the Afghanistan MP mission, the Guantanamo Bay mission, and a great deal of the MP mission in Iraq. I can't think of a single MP unit in the reserves that hasn't been mobilized in some way since Sept. 11, along with a few other high-demand specialties like Civil Affairs, Military Intelligence, and Special Forces. philcarter.blogspot.com