CNO ANNOUNCES NEW "SEA POWER 21" NAVY VISION

In the wake of a continuing series of international terrorist attacks and foiled plots--some linked to operatives of the dispersed al Qaeda network--President Bush moved boldly in recent weeks to advance the U.S. strategy for the war on terrorism on both the domestic and international fronts.

In early June, Bush announced that the United States would move beyond the national-defense strategies of deterrence and containment to "take the battle to the enemy" through a new doctrine that will include the option of preemptive military action. Later in the month, Bush forwarded to Congress draft legislation to establish a Department of Homeland Security.
If approved by Congress, the homeland security measure--formulated in total secrecy by a small group of the president's closest advisors--will result in the most sweeping reorganization of the U.S. government since enactment of the National Security Act of 1947 created the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.

An Offensive Strategy

Addressing the Corps of Cadets and its bicentennial graduating Class of 2002 at the U.S. Military Academy's commencement at West Point, N.Y., on 1 June, Bush announced that his administration will follow a new preemptive doctrine in dealing with international terrorists and the states supporting them. "We cannot put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign nonproliferation treaties and then systematically break them," Bush said. "If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long."

"Every West Point class is commissioned into the armed forces," Bush said. "Some West Point classes are also commissioned by history to take part in a great new calling for their country."
The president asserted that, in defending the peace today, the United States faces "a threat with no precedent" in which the gravest danger to freedom is the combination of the "perilous crossroads of radicalism and technology" coupled with the ability of weak nations and small groups to attain the "catastrophic power" of striking with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.

Saying that "new threats also require new thinking," Bush argued that the strategy of deterrence and its threat of massive retaliation against nations means nothing to "shadowy terrorist networks" with no nation or citizens to defend. "We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best," the president said.

Bush was interrupted frequently during his address by the applause from his large and supportive audience of more than 4,000 cadets and members of their families.

Nations opting for aggression and terror will pay a price, the president said, and he pledged anew his determination to lift this "dark threat" from the United States and the rest of the world. "We will not leave the safety of Americans and the peace of the planet at the mercy of a few mad terrorists and tyrants," he said.

Key to his new strategy, Bush said, is the need for the "best intelligence" to reveal threats to U.S. security early. The U.S. military also must be transformed, Bush said, so that it is ready to strike "at a moment's notice," and U.S. domestic agencies, such as the FBI, must be modernized so that they also are prepared to act quickly against any danger.

"We are in a conflict between good and evil," Bush said, "and America will call evil by its name. By confronting evil and lawless regimes, we do not create a problem, we reveal a problem."

U.S. Consulate in Pakistan Bombed

As if to validate the president's announcement, terrorists exploded a car bomb outside the U.S. consulate in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan, on 14 June--less than a day after Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld visited the country. No U.S. employees were injured in the attack, but 12 Pakistanis were killed and more than 40 others injured.

A previously unknown Islamic fundamentalist group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to media accounts of the incident, but the veracity of the claim was not established, and awaited the completion of an investigation by Pakistani law-enforcement agencies. The FBI dispatched agents to assist in the inquiry.

The blast, the fourth attack this year apparently aimed at foreigners in Pakistan, followed an announcement by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft that the United States had arrested, in May, a "dirty-bomb" suspect in Chicago following his return from Pakistan. The alleged terrorist, U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, was said to be operating under orders from al Qaeda. He is being held at a U.S. Navy installation in Charleston, S.C.

Law-enforcement agencies in several European and African countries also reported arrests of suspected al Qaeda operatives in recent weeks. The Washington Post reported on 16 June that three Saudi nationals were arrested in Morocco in May after it was learned that they were planning suicide-boat attacks against U.S. Navy and British warships during their transits of the Strait of Gibraltar.An al Qaeda suicide-boat attack against the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, in October 2000 killed 17 Sailors and injured 39.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday" on the same day as the Post's report, Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) said that Saudi Arabia could provide more assistance to the United States in the current war on terrorism against Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. "They could help us a lot more in the subsurface efforts that are under way," Daschle said. "We're not getting that kind of help, and I'm disappointed."

Daschle also expressed conditional support for the president's announcement that the United States will take preemptive action against suspected terrorists, but he urged that such action be closely coordinated with U.S. allies.

"There may be occasions [when] preemption is necessary, and when those occasions arise, I hope that it will be the policy of the United States to consult with our colleagues and our allies around the orld," Daschle said. "But if all else fails, if we have no other option ... clearly we have to act in our own best interest."

"An Overriding and Urgent Mission"

In a nationally televised address on 6 June, Bush announced the broad details of his proposal to establish a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. Under the proposal, the new department would reorganize nearly 100 federal offices and 170,000 employees into four broad divisions responsible for border and transportation security; emergency preparedness and response; chemical, biological, and nuclear countermeasures; and information analysis and infrastructure protection.

The $37.4 billion reorganization also would transfer the Secret Service to the new department and create an office for coordination with state, local, and private-sector agencies. The president's proposal would place the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. immigration and visa services under the division responsible for border and transportation security.

"The reason to create this department is not to increase the size of government," Bush said, "but to increase its focus and effectiveness." He called on Congress to support his plan to create a single permanent department assigned the "overriding and urgent mission" of securing the U.S. homeland and protecting U.S. citizens against attack.

While the president's homeland-security initiative drew initial bipartisan expressions of support, some lawmakers said that it does not go far enough in centralizing Executive Branch functions, especially in the area of intelligence. Some congressional leaders were said to be considering placing some offices of the FBI and CIA under the new department's authority.

In formally presenting the president's plan to Congress on 18 June, Homeland Security Director Thomas Ridge said that the proposed legislation is "the next critical step" in the war on terrorism.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) will likely chair hearings this summer on the president's plan. The Bush administration indicated it hopes to have the proposed legislation signed into law before the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States. *

Saying that it is mandatory that the U.S. Navy be guided by a clear, concise, and powerful vision in order to prepare for the wide array of threats it faces, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Vern Clark has announced an innovative and comprehensive plan to transform the service to meet its 21st-century national-security requirements. The Navy's new guiding vision is titled Sea Power 21:

Operational Concepts for a New Era

"This vision must build on the strengths that are inherent for us in the United States," Clark said. "I believe that we possess asymmetric advantages."

Noting that, in his speech at West Point on 1 June, President Bush had challenged the U.S. military to be ready "to take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge," Clark said that the principles developed in Sea Power 21 would help the Navy carry out the president's mandate.

Clark emphasized that the Navy's new vision is firmly based on full support for joint-service operations. "Inherent in everything that I believe about the future of our Navy--about Sea Power 21--is that our Navy will be, first and foremost, a Navy committed to, and built upon, the principles of jointness."

At the heart of Clark's view of naval power in the 21st century are three required capabilities:

* Sea Strike: the ability to project offensive power;
* Sea Shield: the ability to project defensive power;
* Sea Basing: the ability to project U.S. sovereignty and to team with, and provide, enhanced support for joint forces afloat and ashore around the world.

Saying that the Navy's combat operations in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom serve as a "perfect example" of how sea-strike operations can be used to seize the initiative to ensure success, Clark said that even more exciting changes are already taking shape to improve Navy strike capabilities. Those changes include the increased use of unmanned aerial vehicles, miniaturized munitions, and both ship- and submarine-launched long-range sensors to guide weapons precisely to their targets.

"We will design a force with the full expectation that it will work in concert with the United States Marine Corps, with the United States Air Force, and with the United States Army--consciously developed to be joint from the beginning, but able to conduct warfighting roles in the future," Clark said.

Sea-shield capabilities for projecting defensive power from the sea, according to Clark, will extend homeland security to the fullest extent with U.S. forward-deployed forces. "Enhanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems provide critical cueing to this effort," Clark said. He said he envisions a "rich mix" of both manned and unmanned systems.

"Perhaps the most radical change embedded in Sea Shield will be the ability to project defensive firepower deep over land," Clark said. "New technologies will allow sea-based missiles to engage enemy air targets far over the horizon, before they can threaten joint and coalition forces operating ashore."

The Navy's sea-basing capabilities will be increasingly important during the 21st century, Clark asserted. "Sea-based forces are free to operate forward 365 days a year," he pointed out. He also commented on the fact that the use of sea-based forces precludes the need for creating large logistical stockpiles ashore--or, as an alternate, flying in major command-and-control elements and heavy fire-support systems.

"When viewed all together," Clark said, "Sea Strike, Sea Shield, and Sea Basing will fully integrate naval forces into the joint team across the full expanse of a unified battlefield to a greater extent than we have ever seen in our history."

Clark announced the Navy's new vision statement at the Naval War College's Current Strategy Forum in Newport, R.I., on 12 June. He gave credit to the NWC students and strategic studies program for their contributions to his thinking during the development of Sea Power 21. *