REPORT: House Armed Services Roles and Missions report

The House Armed Services Committee has released its Panel on Roles and Missions “Initial Perspectives” report. The report can be found at http://armedservices.house.gov/pdfs/Reports/HASCRolesandMissionsPanelReport.pdf The press release can be found at http://armedservices.house.gov/apps/list/press/armedsvc_dem/RMrelease030708.shtml

Chaired by Representative Jim Cooper, the Panel was established in 2007 to review the roles and missions of the military services. As noted in the report:

“This Panel’s Report does not attempt to give full answers – and certainly not legislative ones – to these categories of problems, but to begin examining several ideas for removing or reducing a number of policy impediments. Many of these ideas will be unpopular with the Pentagon, White House, or within Congress, just as the now-famous Goldwater-Nichols reforms faced strong opposition before 1986. Some of these ideas in this Report deserve strong opposition. But the job of the Panel was to break some ground and plant a few seeds. By your reaction, you can help decide which ones deserve to grow, and offer new ones that should have been planted.”

Major chapters headers are:

• Reform is Hard
• Clarifying Roles and Missions
• Confounding Roles and Missions
• Understanding Our Adversaries
• Better Interagency Coordination
• Preparing for Future Missions
• Failing Jointness