Fuerzas Armadas (Continuación)

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad, ,

The harsh reality of war hit home again this week with two Royal Anglian soldiers killed in Helmand, only hours after one of their regimental comrades, Captain Martin Driver, died in hospital from horrific wounds he had sustained three weeks earlier.

At the same time, the Ministry of Defence was fighting an altogether different type of battle, but one whose outcome could have unwelcome implications for these soldiers’ surviving comrades. MoD lawyers were in the Supreme Court seeking to overturn a Court of Appeal ruling that imposes human rights legislation on British troops, even on the battlefield.

Last year’s ruling was the result of a six-year-long campaign by Catherine Smith to secure a more thorough inquest into the death of her son Jason and achieve better protection of soldiers’ rights.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad,

Barely a week goes by without a retired general — and sometimes a serving one — hitting the headlines. The trouble is that they do so more often because of who they are, rather than because of what they are saying. In most walks of life professional expertise qualifies its possessor to articulate an opinion, and indeed can create a moral obligation to do so. But in the case of war we deny the serving professionals that right.

Counter-insurgencies are 20 per cent military and 80 per cent political. To succeed in such wars generals need sophisticated political antennae. Both David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal have them — they liaise with an administration in Washington that is unsure of its direction, co-ordinate the actions of allies with differing objectives, and accommodate the aspirations of the Governments of Iraq and Afghanistan.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaMemoria Histórica,

Creo que gran parte de la familia militar a la que pertenezco, junto con otros muchos españoles, se siente inquieta al sucederse hechos que, apoyados en disposiciones legales que parecen ignorar valores, sentimientos y arraigadas tradiciones, permiten interpretaciones sesgadas de la historia que reavivan pasiones ya enterradas. El silencio al que nos empujan las virtudes de la lealtad, disciplina y obediencia, que siempre hemos cultivado los militares, no debe interpretarse como un signo de aceptación o sumisión. Hoy, ante los últimos hechos, rompo mi silencio buscando en el recuerdo histórico contrastes significativos.

1.- Baler y el Alcázar de Toledo: Comparemos dos decretos.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaDefensa,

El pasado 15 de enero, el Consejo de Ministros aprobó el reglamento de ingreso, promoción y ordenación de la enseñanza en las Fuerzas Armadas, que es el cambio más importante que ha experimentado en España la enseñanza militar desde que ésta salió de los regimientos y demás unidades para impartirse en las academias.

En el ámbito de la defensa, el Gobierno del presidente Rodríguez Zapatero ha ido tan lejos como en su momento fueron los Gobiernos de Adolfo Suárez y de Felipe González, de modo que en el plazo de una legislatura y media ha impulsado tres leyes que modifican todo el cuadro normativo militar: la Ley Orgánica de la Defensa Nacional de 2005, la Ley de Tropa y Marinería de 2006 y la Ley de la Carrera Militar de 2007, todo lo cual se completará con la Ley de Derechos y Deberes, como anunció la ministra de Defensa, Carme Chacón, en su discurso de la Pascua Militar.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia,

Since the two recent NATO-led military strikes that accidentally killed dozens of Afghan civilians, I have been thinking a great deal about the psychic toll that killing takes on soldiers.

In 2007, I was an Army lieutenant leading a group on a house-clearing mission in Baquba, Iraq, when I called in an artillery strike on a house. The strike destroyed the house and killed everyone inside. I thought we had struck enemy fighters, but I was wrong. A father, mother and their children had been huddled inside.

The feelings of disbelief that initially filled me quickly transformed into feelings of rage and self-loathing.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

¿Qué debe hacer un país cuando, teniendo intereses y obligaciones en todo el mundo, se enfrenta a multitud de desafíos externos y amenazas potenciales?

Pues quizá tenga que pensar más y con más coherencia que antes. Quizá necesite respirar hondo, tragar saliva y tomar decisiones difíciles. Quizá, para mantener simplemente sus intereses fundamentales, tenga que ser bastante despiadado. Quizá ese país -y está claro que me refiero a los Estados Unidos del atribulado mundo actual- necesite reevaluar su posición y su futuro en el ámbito internacional.

Hace unos días, el Pentágono presentó el Resumen Cuatrienal de Defensa a que le obliga el Congreso: un exhaustivo informe que, realizado por los más perspicaces expertos en planificación de la defensa, indica dónde es más probable que estén los principales desafíos del país en materia de seguridad, apuntando, por tanto, qué decisiones habrá que tomar, tanto en lo tocante a prioridades regionales como al gasto en armamento.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

When the Pentagon's top brass announced last week that they no longer believe military unit cohesion suffers from the presence of openly gay men or women in the ranks, they effectively transformed a policy question into a legal one, to which the answer is clear: Congress can no longer mandate discrimination in the armed forces on the basis of sexual orientation.

In the 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law criminalizing same-gender sexual relations, reasoning that such conduct was part of a constitutionally protected liberty interest. The court also suggested that the Texas statute was vulnerable to challenge as a denial of equal protection of the laws.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaPolítica Exterior

En cualquier país democrático, las Fuerzas Armadas (FAS) son hoy en día un instrumento del Estado que contribuye a la paz y a la seguridad no sólo de la propia nación, sino también de otros lugares del mundo. Esta contribución la realizan mediante la Defensa Militar, que, junto con la Defensa Civil, debe constituir la garantía para esa paz y seguridad de la que el Estado es responsable.

La Defensa Civil comprende las acciones políticas, diplomáticas, económicas, policiales y de protección civil y en ella participan distintas instituciones del Estado, pero la Defensa Militar, cuya responsabilidad ejecutiva recae íntegramente en las FAS, supone que éstas deben estar organizadas, equipadas e instruidas para las operaciones militares, es decir para el combate.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad,

‘I am no hero, but I served alongside heroes.” It is an age-old military saying, one articulated and echoed by each new generation of soldiers, but it becomes no less true through repetition.

As a captain in the Royal Irish Regiment I completed two tours of Afghanistan, one in 2006, the other in 2008. On each occasion I witnessed people I admired and respected suffer the most hideous of fates. Not killed by the enemy — in a way perhaps that would have been the kind way out — but maimed; left with what are euphemistically called “life-changing injuries”. If bravery is displayed by those who make the so-called ultimate sacrifice for their country, then it is no less evident in those who survive, albeit terribly scarred or mentally traumatised.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

The Post asked pollsters and others to explain the politics of changing the ban on gays serving openly. Below are responses from Scott Keeter, Ed Rogers, Dan Schnur, Michael Buonocore, Douglas E. Schoen and Sue Fulton.

By Scott Keeter, Director of survey research at the Pew Research Center.

Support for allowing gays to serve openly in the military has been stable for several years and is significantly higher in many polls than it was when President Bill Clinton raised the issue in the 1990s. When the Pew Research Center asked about this issue last March, we found 59 percent saying they favored "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military."…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad,

We politicians stand accused by The Times of failing to grasp the nettle on defence, of tacitly agreeing to avoid the issue in the run-up to the general election. The issues are so complex that there is a temptation to sweep them under the carpet. But national security should be at the heart of any government’s strategy, and judgments on the fitness of politicians to govern should include a judgment of how well they will protect the people. So let’s start the debate now.

There is a political consensus on the need for a defence review. What I think we need is something much broader.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad,

Far away from Afghanistan, another war involving the British military has broken out. This war is being fought in Whitehall, in think-tanks and in the press. The three Services are battling to ensure that their interests win out in the first strategic defence review in more than a decade. So the RAF is championing fighter jets, the Navy capital ships and the Army more soldiers.

The Army claims that it is shouldering the burden of operations in Afghanistan — and this should be reflected in a review — while some in the other two Services argue that Helmand is merely an aberration, not the signpost to what future warfare will look like.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

In his Dec. 27 column, ["An admiral who found the center," op-ed], David Ignatius distorts the proper role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He glosses over Adm. Mike Mullen's professional failures, particularly on Afghanistan and his handling of the firing of Gen. David McKiernan.

Ignatius is wrong to argue that any military officer, especially a member of the Joint Chiefs, is supposed to find the center of the political spectrum. An officer has a responsibility to give the president and Congress his or her best military advice, whether that is embraced by the right or the left, whether it is popular or unpopular.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad,

A fifth of the infantry is hors de combat. According to the Ministry of Defence, almost 5,000 soldiers and officers are not available for combat duty.

As ever with MoD figures, it is not that straightforward. Some of these combat troops cannot be deployed because they are about to be discharged. Others are excused from action on compassionate grounds. But there are more than a thousand soldiers recovering from wounds or other incapacity sustained on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is a sobering thought, the human price of foreign policy and homeland security; but an even more worrying one to senior officers trying to gear the Army for not only the long haul in Afghanistan, but also for the unforeseen contingencies that Harold Macmillan so pithily summed up as “events”.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaEspañaMemoria Histórica,

A pocos metros de profundas zanjas embarradas, un grupo de hombres curtidos por la guerra dirigían la mirada con frecuencia hacia su objetivo. Llamaba la atención uno de ellos; sobre la cabeza el típico fez de fieltro rojo marroquí, al tiempo que sujetaba con cierta solemnidad un banderín de tropa en el que se distinguía la figura de un dromedario.

No, no era el invierno de 1957 en el norte de África. Era el 16 de diciembre de 2009 en la capital de España, frente al Congreso de los Diputados. Y se trataba de veteranos de Ifni-Sáhara, la guerra olvidada. Soldados de reemplazo e integrantes de compañías expedicionarias que combatieron en el África Occidental Español y que se manifestaban para reivindicar el reconocimiento del Estado a quienes fueron enviados a una guerra colonial en un lugar tan lejano como inhóspito.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaDefensa

Ni la Armada ni los ejércitos deben actuar ni como policías, ni como bomberos ni como integrantes de una ONG. No al menos nuestro Ejército, definido en el Artículo 8 del Título preliminar de la Constitución, ni aquéllos que juran obedecer y no abandonar jamás a sus jefes y llegar a entregar su vida, si fuera necesario, en defensa de unos ideales. Una institución así definida y compuesta por este tipo de personas es bien singular y merece ser comprendida y manejada de una manera especial.

Sin embargo, no todos lo creen así; o al menos, aparentemente, se esfuerzan en ignorarlo.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

As President Obama and his advisers planned their new approach to the Afghan war, the quality of Afghanistan’s security forces received unprecedented scrutiny, and rightly so. Far less attention, however, has been paid to the quality of American troops there. Of course, American forces don’t demand bribes from civilians at gunpoint or go absent for days, as Afghans have often done. But they face serious issues of their own, demanding prompt action.

The American corporals and privates who traverse the Afghan countryside today are not at issue. They risk life and limb every day, with little self-pity. Despite the strains of successive combat deployments, they keep re-enlisting at high rates.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaPolítica Exterior,

Ser militar hoy resulta una profesión difícil y nada tiene que ver con la dificultad, mayor o menor, para ingresar en la milicia, sino con lo complicado que resulta en determinados momentos cumplir exactamente con el deber.

A nadie se le escapa que las Fuerzas Armadas de hoy necesitan dotarse de sistemas de armas que permitan a las unidades militares: conocer la situación en la que se mueven, discriminar la presencia de combatientes y no combatientes en el teatro de operaciones, localizar al adversario con precisión, hacer seguimiento de sus movimientos, prevenir el ataque, proteger las posiciones, maniobrar, repeler el ataque, reaccionar con firmeza, evitar daños a la población civil y un largo etcétera.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

The recent revelation that the families of service members who are suicides do not receive presidential condolence letters created a stir, evoking questions of fairness and raising concerns about a lack of compassion from our leaders.

Yet the issue is far more complicated than that. Indeed, there is nothing wrong with stigmatizing suicide while doing everything possible to de-stigmatize the help soldiers need in dealing with post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts.

The key question is to what extent any action we take after a suicide inadvertently glorifies it. Early Christians realized that they were losing too many believers to the attractions of martyrdom.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

By this time next year, U.S. troops will have been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviets were. The United States has been engaged in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq longer than in any previous war. Not factoring in the increase in soldiers going to Afghanistan that President Obama announced last week, some 220,000 American women have engaged in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In the past eight years, more than 2 million U.S. servicemen and servicewomen have served together in situations and for durations that have never existed in previous conflicts. Whatever issues remain to be resolved, the feared "disasters" did not materialize.…  Seguir leyendo »