Our Nation at War

Our Nation, and our Army, are at war. It is a different kind of war, fought against a global terrorist network and not likely to end in the foreseeable future. In the days following the attacks on September 11, 2001, President Bush spoke candidly to the Nation. "These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life." He added: "The only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it and destroy it where it grows."

Our Army exists to fight and win our Nation's wars. We are an integral member of the Joint Team committed to winning in fulfillment of our responsibilities to national security. We are fighting to preserve the American way of life and to safeguard the many freedoms our citizens enjoy. Our Soldiers and their families have not forgotten the events of September 11, which launched us to action in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are reminded daily of the ongoing conflict through separation, concern for forward-deployed loved ones and, most regrettably, news of casualties. Our Army continues the mission and remains committed to defeating our enemy.

At the end of the Cold War, the United States had no peer competitor. Our Army was much larger and was built around heavy, mechanized and armored formations. Because America stood as the lone superpower during this time of global realignment, we were able to downsize our force structure. Today, the future is uncertain and presents many challenges. The emerging challenges manifest themselves as new adaptive threats, employing a mix of new and old technologies that necessitate changes to the ways in which the elements of our national power are applied.

The 21st century security environment is marked by new actors and a noteworthy proliferation of dangerous weapons, technologies and military capabilities. While threats from potentially hostile regional powers remain, increasingly non-state actors, operating autonomously or with state-sponsorship, also are able to endanger regional and global security. These forces -- insurgents, paramilitaries, terrorists, narco-traffickers and organized crime -- are a growing concern. They often are networked and enabled by the same tools and information systems used by state actors. Our adversaries will rely more frequently on indirect and asymmetric methods, such as anti-access and area-denial strategies, unrestricted warfare and terrorism, to mitigate their relative disadvantage. The most dangerous of these threats are the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - including biological or chemical agents, or radiological "dirty bombs" - to attack the United States. This security environment requires that the Army have the capability to dominate throughout the spectrum of conflict and to plan for multiple future contingencies.

As a result of this adaptive enemy and our worldwide commitments, current organizations, systems and facilities are and will continue to be stressed. We now rely on our Reserve Component to support our operations to a degree not seen since World War II. As of January 14, 2004, there were more than 164,000 Reserve Component Soldiers mobilized with over 139,000 of them serving overseas. The institutional Army is being asked to do more, applying lessons learned from current operations. These lessons are critical to our organizations and individual Soldiers as they prepare for worldwide missions. Therefore, the current and future strategic environments require the Army to have the capability to dominate throughout the spectrum of conflict and to plan for multiple contingencies. These new security challenges, coupled with the current war on terrorism, require a different approach.

Last summer, Army leaders identified immediate focus areas instrumental to adapting Army organizations and processes that will help us to better meet the Nation's security requirements. All of our focus areas should be viewed in the context of our ongoing efforts to retain the campaign qualities of our Army while simultaneously developing a Joint and Expeditionary Mindset. Of these focus areas, a critical enabler is the redesign of our resource processes to be more flexible, responsive, and timely. Our goal is to be a better Army every day -- better able to execute our core competencies as members of the Joint Team.

The resource process is at the core of our Army's mission success. Our Nation faces a cunning and adaptive enemy, predictable only in his zeal and intent. We are just as cunning and our Soldiers are constantly changing tactics and techniques in order to disrupt the enemy's plans. In the same way, our resource and acquisition processes must become more flexible, responsive and timely in order to take immediate advantage of technological improvements and to sustain the quality of the force over time.

Resetting the Force

Quickly resetting our forces upon their redeployment from current operations is a strategic imperative. The reset program incorporates lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), retrains essential tasks, adjusts pre-positioned stocks of equipment and ammunition, and brings unit equipment readiness back to standard. Units must recover quickly in order to provide the Combatant Commanders with land-power capabilities for future requirements. We will face challenges as we rotate troops from deployment to home station, while simultaneously maintaining vigilance and readiness.

Continued congressional support and adequate resources are needed to accomplish our reset tasks and to mitigate the risk we have incurred to our Current and Future Forces. The FY04 defense legislation and supplemental appropriation delivered substantial assistance toward covering the cost of current operations and initiating the reset process. We fully appreciate the exceptional support Members and their staffs have provided this year. But, the job is not complete. In fact, it has only just begun.

These deployments, coupled with planned future rotation of units into OIF and OEF, the largest movement of Army troops since World War II, have highlighted already existing stress to our force. To mitigate risk, the Army is embarking on a series of initiatives. The first initiative is resetting forces returning from OIF and OEF to a standard higher than before their deployment. A second establishes force stabilization measures to reduce turbulence amongst Soldiers, units and their families. Thirdly, the Army is internally rebalancing Active and Reserve Component forces to better posture our existing force structure to meet global commitments. And lastly, we are beginning to increase the number of available combat brigades through improved force management and modular reorganization . This increase allows the Army to improve strategic flexibility, sustain a predictable rotation cycle, and permits the Reserve Component to reset.

To facilitate this end state, the Army will seek to maintain, or even to increase temporarily, its current level of manning. These measures, when resourced, will mitigate risk and ultimately provide increased capability to Combatant Commanders.

Our Nation is at war and our Army is at war; we remain ever relevant and ready to meet today's challenges. Yet there is much more to do. We are prioritizing wartime requirements, incorporating next-generation capabilities into current systems where appropriate, and preserving essential investments in the Future Force. We also are becoming more joint and expeditionary. We do not move forward alone, but as part of the Joint Team. We need the support of the American people and the U.S. Congress. With this backing, we will continue to carry the fight to our enemies to provide security here at home.