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Five Sept. 11 Suspects to Face Trial in New York

The Obama administration has announced it will try 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9-11 Gitmo detainees in a civilian federal court in New York, allowing them the protections of the U.S. Constitution even though they are not U.S. citizens.

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Four Radical Chinese Muslims Transferred to Bermuda

Four Chinese Uighers (radical Chinese Muslims) were recently transferred to Bermuda. Do you think it's a good idea to release Gitmo detainees to idyllic vacation retreats?

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June 13, 2008

Air Force’s Problems Reflect Current National Security Challenges

Colonel Kenneth Allard (US Army, ret.)

The stated rationale was a failure to insure proper control over the nuclear weapons, safeguarded by their service as a special trust for the nation. So when defense secretary Robert Gates fired the two top leaders of the US Air Force last week, most editorial writers applauded. The Boston Globe sniffed that the secretary's "insistence on high standards is just what the military needs" while the Miami Herald suggested that such firings should happen more often. "If Mr. Gates' bold move catches on in Washington, who knows where it could lead? (To) better job performance, we hope."

Fair points: but easy enough to say when you only have to worry about putting the words on paper. But tougher, far tougher to do if you exercise the heavy responsibilities of Secretary Michael Wynne or Gen. Michael Moseley, the two officials who were fired though in no way disgraced. Especially Moseley, who commanded the first two post-9/11 air campaigns. Over the notoriously unforgiving outback of Afghanistan, his B-52 pilots pioneered the initial wartime use of GPS-guided smart bombs. With seamless electronic linkages between bombers, Predator reconnaissance drones and special forces mounted on horseback, the American military achieved a victory in weeks that history's most legendary armies never achieved in years. Along the way, they reached levels of joint teamwork and truly lethal combat efficiency that could hardly have been imagined even months before.

Problem is: Afghanistan and Iraq are only our latest wars. For most of the last 20 years, the air weapon has been the mainstay whenever American power was applied to international conflicts that had supposedly ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Years before 9/11, I flew on training exercises with AWACS crews who routinely spent 200 nights each year on "temporary duty" away from their home stations - and of course their families. Since the attacks of 2001, the other military branches have also experienced the repeated deployments and personal sacrifices that accompany war. The Air Force has simply been at it for a lot longer.

After a while though, little things inevitably start to go wrong. Continue doing more with less and big things go awry too. Think the movie Snakes on a Plane was terrifying? Then try explaining how nuclear missiles somehow wound up on an aircraft without the crew even knowing they were on board. Or how nuclear triggers were mysteriously misrouted to Taiwan - and no one even noticed for two years. Those things may be inevitable in a service straining to meet wartime requirements, but more than enough to drive you crazy or to get someone fired.

None of my Air Force colleagues were particularly surprised by last week's events, most having seen it coming. Others doubt that changing the names on E-Ring doors will have more than symbolic value. Whit Peters, a highly regarded air force secretary under President Clinton, points to something deeper: the constant cultural tension between the todays and tomorrows. "With budgets and programs stretched so thin, the urgency of the moment usually overwhelms considerations for the future." One example: balancing expensive state-of-the art fighters like the new F-22 against the operational airpower needed every day in Iraq - 1,300 air strikes in 2007 alone as Gates pointed out in a Monday speech.

Modernizing rapidly aging aircraft also competes with new Air Force missions such as space, surveillance and cyber defense, some of them being explored every day right here in San Antonio. Those new disciplines may eventually change everything about the Air Force culture, much as the 19th century navy went from clipper ships to battleships by navigating carefully through wrenching adjustments to steam, steel and 12-inch guns.

So why even think about such things with SAT scores slipping, gasoline prices skyrocketing and many among us intent on the unilateral beating of swords into plowshares? I can suggest two primary reasons. Plato may have been right in suggesting that only the dead have seen the end of war. And if he was, then you never want to get into one where you don't have close air support.

Col. (Ret) Ken Allard is an executive-in-residence at UTSA, the author of Warheads, and a columnist with the San Antonio Express-News. E-mail comments: Warheads6@aol.com.

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