Voteting UK View of Politics USA

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is a federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies directly involved with national security and military matters. The DoD is one of the largest tenants at The Pentagon and is made of three chief sub-departments, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Air Forceand the Department of the Navy.

Alternative DOD agencies include the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the infamous National Security Agency (NSA).

In terms of the department’s history, it was set up based on some specific plans constructed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and 19 December 1945, President Harry S. Truman proposed the creation of a brand new unified Department of National Defense. The idea was debated over and was not passed until 1947.

On July 26, 1947, President Truman passed the National Security Act of 1947 which set up the National Military Establishment which would begin active operations in September, 1947. The Establishment had the unfortunate abbreviation NME which sounds like ‘enemy’ and it was, in 1949, baptized the DoD.

Until the creation of the DoD, US armed forces were separated into different departments which lacked any real central authority. The Marine Corps was still a separate service under the control of Naval Department while the Coast Guard remained under the control of the Treasury Department.

The Department’s budget was about 7 billion in 2007 though this figure does not include tens of billions more in spent on ’supplementary’ things like nuclear weapons tests.

In time of war, the Department has authority over the Coast Guard. Under the terms of the US Code, the Coast Guard is always considered one of the five branches of the US armed services. During times of declared war the Coast Guard works as a part of the Navy even though the Coast Guard has not been under the full control of Navy since World War 2.

The official command structure of the DoD is set down by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, passed into law by President Ronald Reagan in October, 1986. The Act changed the command structure of the US military and it introduced the most significant changes to the Department since it was established.

Under the terms of the Act, the command passes from the US President, through the Secretary of Defense, to the commanders of all military forces (COCOM). The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is mainly responsible for readiness of the US military and behaves as the President’s military adviser while remaining outside of the chain of command.

The normal very politcally correct Question Time has fallen into troubled times recently when it was announced that Nick Griffin from the BNP party would be on the show. The BBC has been heavily critised for its decision, but defended itself by claiming that it had a responsibility to allow members of any political party that has a representation through the councils of the UK.

The results was demonstrations outside of the BBC and headline news which must be great news for the BNP who are getting a massive amount of publicity both positive of the event and even those who disagree with the BNP party views still believe that in a democracy he should be allowed to be on the programme than it is up to the voters to decide the issues.

The papers the next day were full of opinions of one sidedness and some claimed the audience had been chosen for the night. The BNP have far right views but recenetly have had some success at the polls which many belive is due to the lack of performance from the Labour and Conservative party.

Who would have thought that after nearly 13 years getting a Lokerbie Bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi behind bars, 8 years later he would be released on compassionate grounds. “Deeply upsetting, deeply distressing” was the words from the UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband as the bomber gets a hero’s welcome in Tripoli. There is outrage in the USA as the Scottish Attorney General released the agent who was parts of the plot to bomb flight Pan Am 103, back in 1988. The reason was that this agent only has less than 3 months to live and it is Scottish law that prisoners can apply to be released to spend his final days at home.

However the reception in Tripoli put salt into the wounds and as Scottish flags were being waved (where do you buy Scottish flags in Tripoli?) as it was pretty obvious that the reception was staged by the Gadaphi the leader.

Both President Obama and Hillary Clinton have thrown strong words to the Scottish government, stating this decision was wrong. The USA victims have also stated strong words, such as being physically sick with the news. There was a slightly warmer response from some British families, stating that this agent was not part of the plot and someone who agreed to do a sentence on behalf of other Libyan terrorists or even a group based in Syria and it was he who initiated the plot to bomb 103. In 2003 Libya admitted responsibility of the crime, even so this sole individual took the full blame. There was  a lot of evidence contributing to his involvement, but little that he made or placed the bomb.

Whatever the opinion there has been worldwide condemnation with a hint in other circles that this my help grease the wheels of better relations with Libya, who has already disbanded its nuclear programme and weapons of mass destruction, with both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown both meeting the Libyan leader.

UK and Iran have never seen eye to eye for some time now, but relationship with the USA was normally worse. After President Obama opened his arms to better relationship a few months ago, there seems to be a greater emphasis against UK at this time. It is not that the USA and Iran are now good friends, but it almost as if Iran does not want to cut it bridges of with the USA should they want to talk. Great Briton on the other hand is pretty much seen as an enemy and currently being blamed for the post actions of the Iranian people after recent elections.

Last week 9 British Embassy staff was arrested for “improper Conduct” accused of encouraging the post election protests, sending relationships even lower than before. David Milliband (Secretary of State) has stated that these accusations are unfounded and up to date has managed to aid the release of 8 of the 9 held. However the 9th individual appears to have been charged with “acting against national security”, something totally denied by the foreign office, there is an expectation that this worker will stand trial of some sort.

Ironically this staffs are all Iranian and from the outside it appears that Iran wants to set an example, to the world. Right across the EU, Iranian Ambassadors’ have been called to receive official protests. This may be a UK fight, but the EU are clearly with Great Briton and we wait to see if the Whitehouse will keep its distance or state it’s objection also.

Obama inherited a huge issue with the Taliban in Afghanistan and beyond. Although the reports that are coming back home is that the Americans are losing the war, just as the Russians and others before them it is inconceivable that we should pull out in defeat. This week saw Pakistan going to war with the Taliban in North East, this should be of some release of pressure of what was going to be an  another war ground for the USA and possibly UK troops.
Pakistan had signed an agreement with Taliban not to go to war, providing they followed some specific rules and did not expand their territory, at the USA’s disapproval of negotiating at all with them. Of course they totally ignored the signing and not have almost taken over many areas of Pakistan.  This week saw local troops going into battle with reports of 150,000 dead or wounded already.
Whether we believe those figures or not is irrelevant at this point, what is correct though is now Pakistan has also gone to war, which is good news for Washington. There will be hope of success and as it is predicted that Bin Laden is held up somewhere n Pakistan, the war may create unrest and challenge his position there in time.
Obama message was that everything cannot be achieved through fighting alone, there still needs to be some talking, to what level he was refereeing to is unsure. With the UK troops now officially finished in Iraq and more USA troops to be deployed in Afghanistan there could be some hope to turn things around.