Time will tell what impact, if any, the Overseas Basing Commission’s report will have on the Defense Department’s plan to transform the military’s footprint in Europe.
The commission, which was chartered by Congress as an independent body to examine transformation, released the bulk of its report on Monday. The report came out three months ahead of schedule, to give Pentagon decision-makers more grist, according to Patricia Walker, executive director of the commission.
“It’s to give them another set of eyes to help them make informed decisions,” she said.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled Friday to give his recommendations for stateside base movements to the Base Realignment and Closure commission, or BRAC. The BRAC commissioners are to spend the summer researching the recommendations, including ones that would determine where troops and families now located overseas would be moved.
The Overseas Basing Commission, or OBC, has recommended that the Pentagon’s plan to move overseas troops to the United States be slowed down and reconsidered.
Among the recommendations was that decisions on stateside base closings and realignments be made before the plans for overseas basing become firmly cast. That way, stateside bases and communities would be better prepared to receive troops, families and equipment from overseas in a more seamless manner.
But one congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the impact of the report by the OBC would be “probably nothing.”
“The results are interesting,” the aide said. “But I wonder how much it will actually affect because the [recommendations] are really nonbinding.
“The BRAC commission is supposed to consider this in its deliberation, but what is BRAC going to say?
“They’re not going to say, ‘Don’t bring them back from overseas,’ because they don’t have that authority,” the aide said. “They’re authorized to [recommend] where bases stay open or closed in the United States, not overseas.”
Congress gets to vote on the recommendations for stateside base closings, probably this fall, after President Bush reviews the plan. Congress can approve or disapprove the stateside plan, which would in turn affect the overseas plan.
Walker said she did not view the OBC’s recommendation as critical of the Pentagon.
While saying that the Pentagon was the best body to address its military requirements, the OBC tried to take a broader view.
“We were trying to make an honest assessment and give them some help in some areas where they might want to re-look,” Walker said. “There’s more to the world than our military status. That is why we are taking a more overarching look at the U.S. presence in the world.”
Marine Gen. James L. Jones, commander of both the U.S. European Command and NATO’s military branch, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, said in an e-mailed statement that overseas nations and U.S. forces have been working together on transformation of the U.S. military in Europe.
“We have made several revisions to our original submission, and further changes are possible. Although the commission may have arrived at different solutions to the same set of problems, we are pleased to note that there is general agreement with regard to the ‘end state’ we have proposed.”
The congressional aide said it was up in the air whether the Pentagon would alter its plan for overseas bases because of the OBC report.
“A lot depends on how much has the [Defense] department embraced the results of the Overseas Basing Commission?” the aide said. “I think you would then see how much the OBC will be considered.”
Two Pentagon officials said during a Monday news conference that they rejected the OBC’s recommendation to slow down the process, and they disputed the commission’s claim that the transformation plan was conceived with too little regard for the concerns of people outside the Defense Department.
“What we cannot predict is where, when or in what manner we might need to use those forces,” said Ryan Henry, the principal deputy undersecretary for policy at the Department of Defense.
“And so we think that both flexibility and speed of response are critical attributes that we need to have, and that much of that speed can be gained by bringing heavier forces back to the United States, rather than having them in countries overseas where it might be difficult to use them and get them out.”
