The Rising East
Even as President Bush pursues the war on terror, his administration has given the Pentagon new long-range marching orders that shift the focus of United States military power away from Europe and the Atlantic and toward Asia and the Pacific. Asia takes center stage
in U.S. military planningWhat goes by the awkward title of "Quadrennial Defense Review," or QDR, also seeks to sharpen the way U.S. forces of the Pacific Command operate from the West Coast of the U.S. across the Pacific and Indian Oceans to the high water mark of East Africa.
Adm. Dennis C. Blair, who commands those forces from his headquarters at Camp H.M. Smith, explained in an interview: "I think the most important thing that the QDR does is to give greater emphasis to Asia among the regions that are vital to the United States."
"In the past -- I've been looking at defense reviews for a long time -- the 'Big Three' regions have always been Europe, Southwest Asia and East Asia, and in that order," he said. "Now you find that East Asia comes first, Southwest Asia second and Europe third." Southwest Asia means the Persian Gulf and Central Asia.
"It's also important to recognize that the defense guidance now distinguishes within East Asia between the Northeast Asia problems centered around Korea and the rest of East Asia, which has the whole set of potential conflicts and potential opportunities from the Taiwan Strait around through Southeast Asia and into South Asia," he said. "This is the first time that Asia is explicitly recognized as being more than deterrence in Korea."
To underscore his point, the admiral noted that discussions behind closed doors in Washington once put Asian issues last on the agenda. "I see that underlying emphasis internally. The events of the Pacific and Asia are not discussed toward the end of meetings on resources, deployments, or problems across the board. They're at the front or in the middle."
The QDR was mandated by Congress to require the Defense Department to justify the military element in national security strategy every four years. This QDR, published on Sept. 30, was President Bush's first formal guidance to the armed forces.
Drafted largely over the summer, the QDR was hastily rewritten but not substantially changed after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11. It accentuates homeland security and "restores the defense of the United States as the Department's primary mission," which could be read as a sly dig at President Bill Clinton, who sent armed forces into ventures abroad that seemed tangential to U.S. security.
The defense review was scant on specifics about Asia, but Blair and other officials filled in some details:
>> Guam will become a hub for operations. Three submarines will be based there within a year. Aircraft maintenance facilities will be enlarged as will storage of fuel and ammunition. Bombers from the continental United States will rotate through Anderson Air Force Base more often.
>> America plans no new bases in this region but will rely on bases of friendly nations, such as Australia, when security objectives converge. Military relations will be cultivated through more joint training. Okinawa in Japan will become more important as a hub. More materiel will be stored aboard ships or ashore in the region.
>> U.S. aircraft carriers will spend more time in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans, with the six carriers assigned to Pacific Command being supplemented by carriers from the Atlantic that will patrol the Indian Ocean rather than the Mediterranean.
>> The Navy will explore homeporting three or four more surface ships in the Pacific, primarily as part of a theater missile defense system. As submarines armed with nuclear ballistic missiles are phased out under arms control agreements, they may be converted to cruise missile submarines. A fleet of small surface ships armed with cruise missiles is under study.
>> If stability comes to Korea, the mission of U.S. forces there will shift from defending South Korea to a regional role, like that of the marines on Okinawa. A study is under way to consolidate U.S. bases on the peninsula and to move the headquarters out of Seoul.
Not many years ago, American allies in Asia were worried that the U.S. planned to reduce forces in the Pacific. This QDR seeks to assure Asians that is no longer considered.
Richard Halloran is editorial director of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at rhalloran@starbulletin.com
