Friends, Allies and Partners
During the past week, in two separate sessions, we had the privilege of meeting with Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, Chief of the IDF General Staff, and Gen. John Jumper, Chief of Staff, USAF, and Air Force Representative to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Each talked at some length about how his military force does what it does; how to make it more effective at finding and destroying the enemy; and how to provide the best capabilities to its most important asset, the individual soldier.
During the past week, in two separate sessions, we had the privilege of meeting with Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, Chief of the IDF General Staff, and Gen. John Jumper, Chief of Staff, USAF, and Air Force Representative to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Each talked at some length about how his military force does what it does; how to make it more effective at finding and destroying the enemy; and how to provide the best capabilities to its most important asset, the individual soldier.
The details are not important – and off-the-record in any case. But at a time when the term “shared values” is overused, the common military and social values that make the U.S. and Israel allies, partners and friends were clearly on display in separate settings. You couldn’t tell from the notes we took which one talked about bringing intelligence assets to the battlefield and providing real-time, integrated information to commanders in the field. You wouldn’t know which told the stories about UAVs and who talked about integrating older assets into the modern fight. Or which one was nearly obsessed with inter-service communication and collaboration. They both talked about “effects-based fighting,” and the need to change military thinking to accommodate changes on the battlefield.
You probably could guess which one talked about a soldier on a horse using his laptop to call in B-52s for an air strike.
Compare our notes and you will see that they both believe we are fighting the same broad war for the survival of civilization. Despite the common Western shorthand of “the war on terrorism,” they both described terrorism as only a tactic in the war – a tactic that produced the same revulsion in both. They both voiced concerns for strategic security – both believe their countries vulnerable to strategic attack. Each bemoaned his labyrinthine procurement systems and the convoluted hoops he jumps through to wrest money and cooperation from his legislature – and both were grateful for civilian control of the services. Both believe their militaries, given support from democratically elected governments and supported by free populations, will “find solutions” to the problems that plague us.
In mirror-image remarks, both said their societies, called weak and dilettante-ish by their enemies and sometimes by their friends, are sound. They talked about the young men and women in uniform as strong, dedicated, smart and capable of selfless dedication to cause and country. You couldn’t ask for better proof.
Gen. Ya’alon was asked about the role tiny Israel plays as a security asset for the great big United States. The answer was something along the lines of “together we represent 300 million people.”
That would be 300 million free people willing to take on the burden of defeating those who would fundamentally change our societies and our way of life. That would be 300 million friends, allies and partners.