Gates Speaks At the Point: Implications for PSYOP

While all the excitement in the Middle East continues to flutter about, I felt it was necessary to take a moment and ponder some of the deeper implications of Secretary of Defense Gates’ final speech at West Point on 25 February 2011. (see http://www.defense.gov/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1539)

Picture Source: DOD Website; Secretary of Defense Biography

While all the excitement in the Middle East continues to flutter about, I felt it was necessary to take a moment and ponder some of the deeper implications of Secretary of Defense Gates’ final speech at West Point on 25 February 2011. (see http://www.defense.gov/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1539)

Gates’ last speech to the Corps of Cadets should be taken quite seriously. The Secretary has shown himself to be a confident and fair steward of the Department of Defense who has managed to serve well under two very different Presidents.

Gates made it clear that the Army, the proponent for Military Information Support Operations (MISO) formerly PSYOP will be especially challenged in the time ahead. The Army was singled out as the service most shaped by war and the service that has made great strides in adjusting and adapting to survive.

While the Secretary reaffirmed the need for “swift-moving expeditionary forces” he was quick to point out that no President should put Armies into Asia, Middle East or Africa. He further went on to say that future US engagement should be via sea or air.

He noted that our adversaries are quick to learn and dedicated to negating our advantages on the battlefield while employing our freedom of expression and the borderless cyber world as their communications channels. The Secretary also criticized the Army for its stodgy institutionalism that stifles creativity and embraces career planning better suited for the Cold War.

Frankly none of this is good news for PSYOP. The bi-furcated MISO chain of command, split between AC and RC has clearly shown that it is incapable of acting in a unified way to optimize the force. Diversion of funding to the Air Force and Navy will likely accelerate reducing Army resources even more.

Regrettably there is not very much that any of us can do about that. However, this means that SWC must work more closely with the other services to insure that MISO can operate employing a wide variety of platforms that will synergistically deliver the CDR’s messages. This also means that doctrine needs to be crafted that recognizes the stand off nature of air and sea platforms and that capitalizes on satellite reachback to deliver broadband capabilities and foster communications among information operations forces.

I would encourage the services to engage in ‘exchange programs’ wherein the services station personnel, especially mid-grade NCOs and Officers (E6/O4) in each others’ billets to further shape multi-platform operations.

We also need to insure that senior NCOs and Officers outside the PSYOP/MISO community are encouraged to rate MISO personnel based on their accomplishments and merits, not whether they play they game according to Cold War rules.