how Helmly's draft will work

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/moses01062005.html

Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks Bush's New Deal
Boot Up America!


I was fifty five percent done with my download of America's Army, the game you can get for free on the internet (or in CD format from your Army recruiter if you don't have broadband, kid) when notice came down an anti-war list that the Army Reserve is, according to a leaked memo, "rapidly degenerating into a ëbroken force.'" Since memos are to be taken seriously when leaked the day before Congress convenes, I've little choice right now but to toggle between my Army made Army game and this Army induced article, which is good preparation, don't you think for the all-Army future that is bringing purpose and clarity to your muddled life and mine.

The author of the (ahem) leaked memo, James Helmly, is no whiner, having worked his way up from Vietnam-era Private to three-star General and Chief of Army Reserves. In Sept. of 2003 he was quoted in USA Today saying that the Army Reserve is now on "a war footing" and needs to enter full war mode. In fact, he seems to have a pretty clear idea about how Congress can help him fix his ëbroken force,' according to testimony that he gave to the House Armed Services Committee on March 31, posted at globalsecurity.org. But before we get started on that long, boring agenda for readiness among our children's children, including perpetual rotation into combat, please start your own download of America's Army so that you too can begin to acclimatize yourself to the appropriate mood. Meanwhile, please excuse me as I unzip my file.

(note 2 things: "including perpetual rotation into combat," and "America's Army game")

-snip-

paragraph from Helmly's testimony



Changing the way we employ Soldiers starts with changing the way we prepare for calls to active duty. The current process is to alert a unit for calls to active duty, conduct administrative readiness preparations at home station, and then send the unit to the mobilization station for further administrative and logistical preparedness processing and to train for deployment. This alert-train-deploy process, while successful in Desert Shield/Desert Storm, today inhibits responsiveness. By changing to a train-mob-deploy model, and dealing with administrative and logistical requirements prior to active duty, we will reduce the time needed to bring units to a campaign quality level needed for operations. This will require us to resource more training events at home station through the use of devices, simulators and simulations. As you would expect, this shift in paradigms will increase pre-call-to-active-duty OPTEMPO beyond the current statutory level and will require greater effort and resources to achieve. We are confident that the increased costs will pay significant dividends in terms of readiness and deployability.


You can read the rest of the testimony for yourself, but it looks to me like Gen. Helmly wants to see a beefed up and "rotating" Army Reserve in which soldiers go active on a four or five year rotation. They can work at home, go active, and then rotate back home in what Helmly calls the "train-mob-deploy" model, or what we might better call Bush's answer to the New Deal. For Helmly, the Army Reserve will need to rely less and less on folks coming out of the Army, more and more on new kids gearing up for their first Army experience. This is handy timing, because older soldiers aren't coming back to reserves like they used to.

In the new order of things, the Army reservist's "home station" will be equipped with "devices, simulators and simulations." Excuse me again, while I click the next button on my Install Shield wizard for America's Army (these Army downloads are sharp, I gotta say). After clicking everything that says I agree (who knows what we'll be agreeing to in the future?) the wizard tells me my name and asks me to fill in my organization. Peacefile should do nicely. Install this for anyone on the computer? Why not. Click install. This may take several minutes. Okay, back to OPTEMPO.

-snip-

What's cool about GameSpy Arcade, says the screen now in front of me, is that it offers "cheat free servers." This idea is appealing, because the next time I get my ass kicked online playing WarCraft, I would like to know that it wasn't because of cheat codes. So okay, sign me up for another download. But I do wonder how GameSpy got itself bundled into the Army install shield. Maybe I could get some help from the info hacks on this. Does the Army take bids for little perks like this? The "wise" wizard also offers SeeMePlayMe and Xfire, both of them service providers that will take your credit card number right away. At last, when I start up the game finally, it confines my cursor inside the military frame, no more toggling here. Either play America's Army or don't.

As I roll the credits for America's Army, looking for the music composer, I think about the creative and strategic genius that is being put to work here with tax dollars that have been borrowed from our children's children. Free war games all around, in preparation for a future of interminable strike forces and routine rotations into and out of combat. Here is the new American system, ever ready for the next little war in the next little country. Boot up America, your Army is waiting, and your ship of state is puffing hard, damn the leaks and full speed ahead. Click yes to play.
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