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GOP calls for larger military, missile defense development

The Republican Party campaign platform for the fall elections calls for pay and personnel policies that support keeping an all-volunteer force.

That includes providing adequate pay, housing, health care and education, and significantly increasing the size of the military, according to the campaign plan approved during the party’s national convention in St. Paul, Minn. It also includes continuing to bar gays from serving openly in the military.

The 48-page platform is a guide for Republican candidates in the November general elections, but like the national platform approved by Democrats during their national convention in Denver on Aug. 26, it is not binding. Republicans running for office can choose the positions they support.

In many cases, the Republican plan is not very specific, allowing for wide interpretations. For example, it says that people in the military and their families “must have the pay, health care, housing, education and overall support they need” without saying whether current programs are sufficient or if Republicans want changes. Similarly, it calls for the size of the military to be “significantly” increased without saying by how much.

On personnel policy issues, Republicans are firm about making the all-volunteer force work. “We oppose reinstituting the draft, whether directly or through compulsory national service,” the platform says.

Republicans also “support the advancement of women in the military and their exemption from ground combat units,” according to the platform, and believe homosexuality is incompatible with military service.

The platform calls for a “new commitment of resources and personnel” to treat service members injured in Iraq who have suffered traumatic brain injuries and says military medicine must be the “gold standard for advances in prosthetics and the treatment of trauma and eye injuries.”

For the National Guard and reserves, Republicans pledge to provide pay, benefits and support “befitting their service” and reaffirm the legal rights of reservists to return to civilian jobs after release from active duty.

On other defense issues, Republicans said development and deployment of national and theater missile defenses is a top priority, and call for continued reform of the weapons acquisition process.

“Effective, layered missile defenses are critical to guard against the unpredictable actions of rogue regimes and outlaw states, reduce the possibility of strategic blackmail, and avoid the disastrous consequences of an accidental or unauthorized launch by a foreign power,” the platform states.

Calling defense contractors the “military’s partners,” the platform says improvements are needed to get vital equipment to the troops. “To ensure that our troops receive the best material at the best value, we must reform the defense budgeting and acquisition process to control costs and ensure vigorous and fair competition,” the platform says.

For veterans, Republicans said funding for health and benefits programs should be “sufficient, timely and predictable, and never be subject to political gamesmanship.”

“The Department of Veterans Affairs must become more responsive and more efficient by eliminating its disability backlog and reducing waiting times for treatment,” the platform says, also calling for a restructuring and modernization of disability ratings.

Republicans pledge to pay special attention to “combat stress injuries,” the phrase used for the variety of mental health issues for returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. “There must be adequate counseling when veterans return home — for them and their families. They should have ongoing professional care, whether in a VA facility or closer to home, so that the natural and usually temporary responses to the horrors of war do not become permanent conditions,” the platform says.

Elaine Donnelly, the president of the Center for Military Readiness who testified before Congress earlier this year about the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy,” said she likes the GOP platform because it has “sound priorities” on personnel policy.

Donnelly said she is pleased that the platform supports current law, which holds homosexuality as incompatible with the military and likely to cause serious problems. She also is pleased with language about the role of women in the military. “I think it states very well where the majority of people stand. We all support women in the military, but not in direct combat,” Donnelly said.