the future of war
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interviews: Military leaders and national defense experts address the major questions explored in this FRONTLINE report:  What are the challenges facing General Shinseki in transforming the U.S. Army? What will the tomorrow's wars look like and how should we prepare for them?  What is the state of military readiness today and how is that defined?


Richard Cheney

He served as Secretary of Defense in the George H. Bush administration, 1988-1992. This interview was conducted when he was the Republican vice-presidential candidate in the 2000 election. He is now the U.S. Vice President.



Major Gen. James Dubik

He is Deputy Commander General for Transformation at Ft Lewis, Washington and is overseeing the creation of the Army's interim brigades. These medium weight brigades are equipped with light armor and are meant to bridge the gap in current operational shortfalls while the army designs its "future objective force." The objective force will take more than a decade to develop and will incorporate new technologies to make it as mobile as light infantry, but as lethal as heavy armor. Dubik is a former infantryman, paratrooper and West Point instructor.



john hillen

He is a former Army captain and a former staff member of the Commission on National Security, a Congressionally appointed independent committee to examine national security issues in the 21st century. He has been a defense policy adviser to the Bush 2000 campaign.



frederick w. kagan

He teaches military history at West Point and is the co-author of While America Sleeps--Self Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today. He believes the U.S. military is being seriously underfunded and compares America today to England in the 1930s.



lawrence korb

He is vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations and former assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, 1981-1985.



Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr.

He is executive director of the non-profit Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and also served as a member of the National Defense Panel. The Panel was set up in 1997 by the Secretary of Defense to reevaluate changing military needs in the new post-Cold War environment.



Senator Joseph Lieberman

He is a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. [This interview was conducted before he became the Democratic vice presidential candidate in the 2000 election.]



ralph peters

A former Army Lt. Colonel and author of several books on the military, he initially was a skeptic of General Shinseki's efforts to change the Army. He is the author of Fighting for the Future: Will America Triumph?



General Eric K. Shinseki

Appointed Army chief of staff in June 1999, he is calling for an Army transformation that will better prepare it to fight the new 21st century wars. As part of this effort, he wants to put a brigade combat team anywhere in the world in 96 hours, a division in 120 hours and five divisions in 30 days.



General Eric K. Shinseki

An analyst in the Pentagon's Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation, he's been an outspoken critic of military spending issues dating back to the early years of the Reagan administration. He authors an email column that is widely disseminated within and outside the Pentagon. This interview reflects his personal opinions; he is not speaking as a representative of the U.S.Defense Department.

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