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Lieberman Calls For Refocusing Military
Resources
to Strengthen Homeland Security
Advocates specific, stepped-up
role for National Guard that rebalances resources
WASHINGTON -- Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (D-CT), whose committee is
leading the congressional creation of a Cabinet-level Department
of Homeland Security, today proposed to redefine the role of the
military, and specifically the National Guard, in defending the
American people against future terrorist attacks.
Lieberman called for
going beyond the military’s existing plans to create a new
Northern Command to protect North America, and outlined a range
of ways that the Department of Defense could work
collaboratively with the new Department of Homeland Security to
bring the military’s significant resources to bear for domestic
defense. Lieberman argued that though the military is currently
focused on this mission, it is applying existing assets to the
challenge – not yet developing new, carefully calibrated
resources to protect the American people.
“Our Department of Defense has more tools,
training, technology, and talent to help combat the terrorist
threat at home than any other federal agency,” Lieberman said.
“Our military has proven capable of brilliance beyond our
borders. Now, we must tap its expertise and its resources
within our country—by better integrating the Defense Department
into our homeland security plans.”
Lieberman outlined his thoughts during the
keynote address of a Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) forum on
the next steps in homeland security.
Earlier Wednesday, Lieberman held the second in a series of four
hearings examining the homeland security reorganization
plan proposed by President Bush, this one focusing on the
relationship of the intelligence community to the new
department.
Lieberman first introduced legislation to create
a Department of Homeland Security last fall – a plan closely
tracked by President Bush’s recently-announced plan – and is
currently holding a series of hearings on the creation of the
new department. During those hearings, Lieberman has expressed
concern about the appropriate degree of coordination between the
Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, a
theme he elaborated on today.
Lieberman announced that to help integrate their
efforts, the legislation being crafted in the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee will include a strong, official
link between the Defense Department and the new department to be
created.
The Defense Department has enormous assets to
bring to this effort, Lieberman said. Its 2.2 million personnel
dwarf the Department of Homeland Security’s expected 170,000
personnel, and the new department’s budget will be about
one-tenth of the Pentagon’s $393 billion budget. The Defense
Department also has trained personnel experienced in responding
to crises and expertise in dealing with chemical, biological,
nuclear and radiological weapons.
“No part of our military is better suited to aid
in providing for the common defense of our homeland than the
National Guard,” Lieberman said, saying that Guard’s half a
million personnel are not being used to their fullest potential
in homeland defense. While the Guard played an important role
after 9/11 in protecting airports and the streets of New York,
Lieberman said those were stopgap measures, and that a strategic
plan is now needed to “build new and different National Guard
units, equip them with new and different equipment, and instill
in those servicemen and women new and different ways of thinking
about their mission.”
Lieberman today
called on President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld to “redirect the Guard to focus more mind and muscle on
domestic defense,” and outlined some specific areas where the
Guard can play a role:
·
Prevention and
Protection: Lieberman suggested the
Air Guard might patrol the skies above our cities more actively;
that the Army Guard work with local authorities to better
protect our ports, bridges, railways and roads; and that the
military should work with the Centers for Disease Control on
national disease surveillance;
·
Responding to Terrorist
Attacks: Lieberman said that existing
National Guard State Area Commands (STARCs) can help train local
first responders in catastrophic response; that the Department
of Defense should establish new Regional Chemical and Biological
Incident Response Teams, which would help response forces manage
the consequences of such attacks; that National Guard medical
officers be deployed to provide care when local public health
systems are overwhelmed after a bioterror attack; and that in
the event of another attack Guard engineers assist with
rebuilding infrastructure, just as they currently do abroad.
Lieberman cautioned
that these suggestions should not conjure up images of armed
soldiers on street corners, noting that law bars such a scenario
and that instead our focus should be on changing our “methods
and our mindset” in utilizing the Guard as a lead player – not
merely a support force.
In addition to strengthening the Guard’s role in
homeland defense, Lieberman suggested the military can also
apply its resources in others ways. First, he said the
intelligence gathered by the military must be coordinated with
what’s collected from other sources and be assessed by the new
Department of Homeland Security. Second, the military should
adapt its protocols for medical units in combat - such as
chemical, biological, and radiological decontamination units –
to help train domestic first responders for civilian use. Third,
the military should leverage its technology expertise to help
develop a new, domestic security-oriented version of DARPA, the
military’s chief resource for meeting its high-tech needs.
Closing, Lieberman
said that, “To guard our liberty at home today and tomorrow, we
have to call upon all our strengths—including our great military
strength. As we redirect our defenses to our homeland, we will
reconnect hundreds of thousands of citizen soldiers to the proud
mission of protecting the land in which they and their families
live. And we will reconnect more American civilians to the men
and women of our military, whose service and sacrifice have, for
more than two centuries now, kept us safe and free.”
The full text of
Lieberman’s speech is available online at:
Remarks to the Progressive
Policy Institute Forum on
“Making America Safer: Next Steps for Homeland Security” |