Military Reform

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Indonesia on Wednesday to make greater efforts to reform its armed forces, echoing calls from critics of Washington's decision to restore military ties last year. In an address to Indonesia's World Affairs Council, Rice stressed that a "reformed and effective" Indonesian military was in the interests of everyone in a region beset by terrorism and unrest.

His emotional pressure valve apparently blew: The distraught South Korean Marine Corps corporal decided he'd endured enough abuse from his peers at an isolated base outside Seoul, authorities say. The 19-year-old allegedly went to an unlocked weapons storage room this month and smuggled out an assault rifle, bullets and a hand grenade. Then he returned to his barracks on Ganghwa Island near the North Korean border and opened fire. Shooting at least a dozen times, authorities say, he killed four marines and injured another.

Sailors and Marines in Southern California welcomed the Pentagon report on the Tailhook Assn. investigation as a sign that the sex scandal is behind them and that the time has come to plow ahead with military reform. Most of those interviewed Friday credited reports of debauchery at the 1991 Tailhook convention in Las Vegas for speeding along a response to calls from U.S. servicewomen for an end to sexual harassment and inequality in the ranks. Cmdr.

A general's downfall Re "General's job hangs in balance," June 23, and "McChrystal is out; Petraeus is in" and "General's downfall was rapid-fire," June 24 The comments by Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and his staff are damaging not only to the rules and traditions of our military but to the special relationship between the military and the presidency. Regardless of who is right on the management of this war in Afghanistan, McChrystal chose to do what soldiers don't do. He went public, rather than professional.

The Bush administration's plan to overhaul the military is shaping up as a gradual and protracted effort, rather than the kind of explosive change that many had come to expect, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told lawmakers Wednesday during closed-door briefings. Rumsfeld is still aiming to bring major reform, as President Bush promised during his presidential campaign.

The marines of the Russian Far East are among the most pampered members of the Russian military. Their pay comes only two months late. They usually get fed. And many of their officers get free housing, even if the accommodations are one room to a family in a spartan barracks. Not for them the miserable fate of fellow conscripts in nearby Nakhodka. In July, firms in Nakhodka appealed to Russia's new security chief, Alexander I. Lebed, to send food to the local border guards.

Spurred by repeated Pentagon pricing scandals, the poor performance of a number of American military units on Grenada and the failure of a 40% real increase in defense spending to purchase any real increase in military strength, both Congress and the Administration have jumped on the military-reform bandwagon in the past year. Their most important initiatives are a bill sponsored by Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.

President Vladimir V. Putin appointed a trusted ally and fellow KGB veteran as defense minister Wednesday, part of a sweeping reshuffle of top security posts that signals the Russian leader's determination to reform his nation's military. For the first time, Russia's fractious generals will be subordinated to an outsider--and will answer to a woman for their spending.

President Vladimir V. Putin attacked one of Russia's most intractable problems Friday with a pledge to carry out a reform of the military that may decide the future shape of the country's nuclear weapons. The painful issue of restructuring the military sparked a bitter public row among Russia's top brass last month. But Putin told the powerful Security Council in a four-hour meeting Friday that it was time to end the argument.

President Boris N. Yeltsin's anti-corruption ax cleaved deeply into the military hierarchy Thursday when he fired the defense minister and chief of staff for failing to reform an army in which "soldiers grow thinner while generals get fatter." Yeltsin's withering ouster of Defense Minister Igor N. Rodionov and Army Chief of Staff Viktor Samsonov was the latest in a flurry of high-level hatchet jobs as the president struggles to appear tough on greed and graft.

The U.S. government must take steps to modernize how it keeps track of its nuclear weapons to help prevent mistakes, Air Force Chief of Staff Norton A. Schwartz said Tuesday on a visit to part of his service's nuclear force. Schwartz visited Barksdale Air Force Base, one of the installations housing the nation's nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, in a trip designed to emphasize the importance of reforms in how weapons are handled.

Absorbing the lessons of a troubled war, U.S. military officials have begun an intense debate over proposals for a sweeping reorganization of the Army to address shortcomings that have plagued the force in Iraq and to abandon some war-fighting principles that have prevailed since the Cold War. On one side of the widening debate are officers who want many Army units to become specialized, so that entire units or even divisions are dedicated to training foreign militaries.

Israeli leaders on Monday nominated a new army chief to replace Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who quit last week after lingering criticism over last summer's war in Lebanon. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz put aside recent bickering long enough to recommend Gaby Ashkenazi, a respected major general in the reserves who left the Israel Defense Forces after losing out to Halutz for the top post two years ago.

The remains of Marines killed in Iraq or Afghanistan will be met by at least two Marines to "render appropriate honors" when the caskets arrive as cargo aboard civilian airlines, under a policy issued this week. Camp Pendleton has had more personnel killed in Iraq -- nearly 290 -- than any U.S. military base. The old policy required only one Marine. But amid a congressional probe into how all services are treating the remains of those killed overseas, the Marine Corps has changed its policy.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested Tuesday that recent criticism from retired senior officers stemmed from long-standing disagreements over modernizing the U.S. military, saying a series of organizational shake-ups had provoked antagonism within the armed forces.

For a service usually stationed so far from the front lines that it has earned the sobriquet "Chair Force," some of the scenes now unfolding at the Air Force's primary training base almost seem blasphemous. New recruits are being trained to use rifles. They are being taught hand-to-hand combat skills. They are being prepped as battlefield medics.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin signed a hard-nosed decree Thursday designed to shrink the country's bloated and decrepit armed forces to an affordable and effective size. "It has taken us a long time to arrive at this decision, and our time has run out," Putin said. "Today we must act. The future of the army, and the military organization of the country as a whole, depends on it."

For a service usually stationed so far from the front lines that it has earned the sobriquet "Chair Force," some of the scenes now unfolding at the Air Force's primary training base almost seem blasphemous. New recruits are being trained to use rifles. They are being taught hand-to-hand combat skills. They are being prepped as battlefield medics.

The Army has a message for the growing legions of flamboyantly tattooed American teens: Uncle Sam even wants you. Facing one of the worst recruiting climates in the allvolunteer military's history, the Army has decided to relax standards that dictate which parts of a soldier can be festooned with body art. Specifically, the service will accept recruits with tattoos on their neck and hands.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Indonesia on Wednesday to make greater efforts to reform its armed forces, echoing calls from critics of Washington's decision to restore military ties last year. In an address to Indonesia's World Affairs Council, Rice stressed that a "reformed and effective" Indonesian military was in the interests of everyone in a region beset by terrorism and unrest.