I'd have no problem dealing with the press, I look good on TV, can manage not to say the "F" word when speaking publicly (unless I am drugged up, then it's open season) the war on terror has had a personal and physical impact on my life, I see issues affecting the military from the end-user, not pork barrel level, and I've even got a plan to make sure none of our retired generals would speak out against the administration.
(okay, I'll not be like the Dems and I'll actually share the plan...)
Step one: Even though retired, all officers can be recalled to active duty (just like a stop-loss, but in reverse.) I'd recall the lot of them to duty, albeit at a lesser rank--say, 2 grades below what they retired as. It wouldn't affect their retirement pay, so they couldn't complain. I would ensure they had lots of backwater postings, keeping them very far from the gardens of stone and limestone facades of DC, where the urge to engage in punditry is too great. Their jobs would be critical to the
Second order of business: We are not now, nor will we ever be on the defensive when it comes to our enemies. We'll go back to "The War Department."
Third order of business: Uncle Jimbo will be my #2, or Press secretay, one or the other, or both.
Fourth order of business: Kim duToit will write special legislative policy, enacted by executive order, pertaining to citizen ownership of "battle rifles" by the civilian population, with specifics as to type and training required. Random acts of violence (looking at homeland defense) tend to be reduced in frequency in an armed society. (Just ask the Brits and Aussies.) Long arms are unweildy for burgulars, and even for drive-bys, but work very well when defending against such (a 165gr FMJ coming out of an M1 Garand WILL stop most burglars, and has the reach to catch up to, and go through, fleeing attackers.)
Fifth order of business: I strongly believe that rebuilding and peace will not come to Iraq or Afghanistan without two things: Extremely secure borders coupled with disarming the population. Make ownership of weapons a crime, and make turn-in mandatory. Then anyone with a weapon is fair game. Securing the borders will eliminate the very real threat of foreign fighters entering just to attack the infidels. As for caves in the 'Stan, seal them with our nastiest chem/bio agents. Establish movement corriors through the borders, and anything not moving within those corridors is immediately killed, without regard to age, sex, religeon or anything else. (ref: Dale Brown's 'Hammerheads.' Literally, a no-mans land, patrolled by predator and hunter UAVs, which are controlled by various sensor arrays, and which respond without the need for approval or even a human to push the button; it sees a heat/IR/UV/whatever signature, it destroys it. We can, of course, turn it off long enough for us to go where we want. Nothing in or out without our approval.
The US military controls the Borders, Internal security is a combination of US and former KGB and GRU advisory teams who assist the Iraqi and Afghan police and Armies, taking the best of all three orgainzations to root out and kill insurgents, criminals, and terrorists.
Sixth order of business: Stopping enemy funding sources. The 'Stanis seem to have a prediliction for growing poppies, and since we control the borders, heroin trafficing would stop. So anyone who continues to grow poppies would also find themselves dead, as it's the best way to control drug-growing farmers.
Seventh order of business: Reconstruction. Afghanstan: we set up huge agribusiness, focused on biofuels and food production. A double whammy, if you will; the people could eat and produce fuel. Can you imagine? To do this, I would federalize the Peace Corps, and tell those hippies they had two years to make it work, and we'd fund the biodiesel factories as well as farm equipment (real farm equipment, not just more donkeys and women!) fertilizer, seed, soil, and establish a basic transportation/distribution network. I am certain it can be done, but we have to have the Iron will to secure the borders of both countries by the most violent means available, and root out the cancers from within the same way.
In Iraq, with a combination Agrarian/Oil/Industrial economy, we could establish many of the same programs, but redistribute water systems to bring the deserts back to life, rebuild the Oil production systems, and get some heavy industry going. In order to do that, you guessed it, you have to have a secure country. Both external (border) security, and Internal (homeland) security.
If you get rats in a haystack, you have to destroy the hay, as it is spoiled by urine and other filth. To get rid of the hay and the rats, you set for to the hay and either kill them when they run out, or they die in the fire. I like this model, except we'll try to separate the salvagable people first, then destroy the criminal/terror population. A very careful, methodic approach is necessary, establishing temporary "relocation camps" where citizens could be sent while their sector is cleared of weapons, bad guys, and other threats to state security. While in this temporary housing, we provide them with almost everything they could want, from food and clothing to healthcare and education (focusing, naturally on democracy.)
Sectors would be secured and patrolled much the same way as the borders, with people who remain in the "secure area" being killed after the mandatory evac time. Once the sector has been cleared and searched, and damages repaired and conditions improved (electric, clean water, windows, paint, roads, pavement, etc) the population is allowed back in, but the borders of the secure areas are only open to other secure area borders, so cross-contamination is not possible. Having the population of say, Sadr City move out while it is thoroughly searched would probably allow us to find an awful lot of caches, without having to engage in days-long firefights. People in the camps would be treated with the utmost dignity and respect, and encouraged to rat out the insurgents, criminals and terrorists among them, since they'd have no fear of repercussions.
Three years, six tops, and the Iraq/Afghanistan problem is resolved. Two strongly pro-US of A democracies, one on either side of Iran, both flourishing with new economies and means of self-sustainment, a global business partner, and staging points for our future conquering of Syria and Iran. Here's what we'll need: Lots more tech stuff. Better sensors and UAV's, and lots of them. We (suprisingly) don't need more soldiers, we'll use the ones we have. First, we'll stop rotating units, and double our troops on the ground, leaving about 1/3 of the total force stateside. the rest will stay in theater for the duration. It's bitter pill to swallow, so pay for those in theater will automatically double, as will time toward retirement (1 year of service in theater=2 years towards "years of service"= faster promotions, more pay, and sooner retirement.) R&R leave programs continue. As SECWAR, I will stay in theater to oversee the conduct of the operation, returning stateside only to meet with my boss and report to him on our progress. Anyone else who needs to see me can come on over to where I am. All journalists in theater are put back in the pool, except for milbloggers who wish to visit, and Michael Yon. The Journalist pool will be kept in a fest tent with two dial-up internet connections for them to all share, as well as electricity. The pool is located in Camp Buehring, Kuwait. Any journalist arriving in theater is tagged with an RFID tag, and any going where they aren't supposed to soon find themselves in undiclosed locaton for the duration.
All milbloggers serving in theater will not have any of their posts censored, pre-approved, or otherwise meddled with, but they will also understand that any breach of OPSEC will result in a life without parole sentence at Ft. Leavenworth. Bloggers will (of course) have intel folks available to review their posts prior to posting, to ensure they don't accidentally violate OPSEC. All other news outlets, especially Reuters, Al Jazeera, Al NYT, and Al CNN, shall not be allowed to enter so much as the airspace of Iraq or Afghanistan. As for the people's right to know, and the "truth," the first is not listed anywhere in the US constitution, and the second hasn't been reported by the MSM since Dewey defeated Truman.
Since this is now a "Situation" and not a war, there are no Accords or Conventions covering treatment of Prisoners Of Situations (P.O.S.'s--yes, another double entendre) So what do we do? We free up lots of troops by closing down the GITMO detention facility. No issues there, we move it to a much more secure, secluded, and otherwise undisclosed location, perhaps even put it on a naval vessel which we can move from time to time, or on an atoll somewhere. Its location should be more undisclosed than the VP's; and we will never confirm nor deny its existence, ever. As a matter of fact, the only person who would ever know exactly where it is would be me; all travel to and from would be through autopiloted B52's with the blast shields down, and GPS displays removed, or something like that. Internees would only be kept until their intelligence value was used, and then they would either continue (perpetually) to be undisclosed, or we would insert RFID trackers into them, and release them on the UN compound in NYC, with a message to the UN that the friend of my enemy is my enemy, and tell the releasees that if they leave the compound and touch US soil, the RFID tracker will release a nerve agent and pig's blood into their brain. This way we'll know if there's anyone in the UN willing to support terrorism, and they'll also quit kvetching about how we treat our POS's. Any reporter or aid organization wishing to view the detention facility is more than welcome to come, but they cannot leave until the situation is over and the last POS is disposed of. POS's will have no rights of any kind, will be kept naked, hungry, cold, and as uncomfortable as possible, with the knowledge and understanding that the people responsible for their very lives have no concern for their wellbeing whatsoever. They will be fed nothing but unclean foods, and their only access to religeon will be old Reverend Billy Graham crusades, Oral Roberts (in his pre-900' tall Jesus days) and the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who will also stay for the duration at the detention facility. They may have Korans, but they will be written in a combination of Esperanto and Klingon.
That's about it for my first week. Week two would be some REAL changes.
--Chuck
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