29 March 2007
Crystal Gateway Marriott
29 March 2007
MCA Ground Dinner Features Lt Gen John F. Sattler as Guest Speaker
On the evening of Thursday, 29 March 2007, the Marine Corps Association co-hosted a Ground Dinner at the Crystal Gateway Marriott hotel in Arlington, Virginia with HQMC PP&O Department. Twice-yearly events, one of the Ground Dinners is customarily devoted to presenting awards to the Marines of the Year from each of the four Marine Divisions and also to the winner of the Leftwich Trophy for outstanding leadership by a Marine Captain serving in a company or battery command position.
The MCA Ground Dinners provide a forum for discussion of issues generally pertaining to the ground combat element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) and gives the entire “Ground” community a chance to come together for education, networking and camaraderie. Each event features a prominent guest speaker who talks about current military and security issues of particular interest to the “Ground” community.
This dinner featured Lt Gen John F. Sattler as the guest speaker. General Sattler currently serves as the Director for Strategic Plans and Policy, J-5, The Joint Staff. His presentation was on the subject of “The New Way in Iraq.”
The Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps was present at the beginning of the festivities and serenaded the near capacity crowd of over 400 guests with stirring music as the guests sought their seats. Following administrative remarks and crowd acknowledgements by Maj Gen Les Palm, the President and CEO of MCA, the colors were presented by a color guard from Marine Barracks Washington DC. Following a chaplain’s invocation, the guests turned to dinner with gusto.
Well attended, the dinner guests included over 45 active duty and retired Marine General officers and a number of General and Flag officers from the other services.
Following desert, Lt Gen Natonski, Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations and the Co-Host of the event, made a particularly humorous introduction of guest speaker Lt Gen Sattler. Alluding to the customary “Capstone” tour trip that his former neighbor made when he became a General Officer, General Natonski said that General Sattler selected a trip to Australia. While there he bet a bartender a free T-shirt for everyone in his party if he, an American, could sing all three stanzas of that most famous of Australian songs, “Waltzing Matilda.” The bartender took the bet and lost.
General Sattler then stepped up to the lectern to make his presentation. He brought down the house by singing “Waltzing Matilda” on the way up to the microphone. In addition to widespread amusement that he knew such an arcane song with such tricky lyrics, the consensus was that he actually sang it both well, AND in tune, an amazing combination in Marines outside of the President’s Own
Turning quickly to the subject of Iraq and how the new strategy mandated by the President is working there, General Sattler took some time to characterize the enemy. He said that there were many who were twisting the Koran to justify what they were – murderers and thugs with nothing positive to their credit or to offer. He said that the goal of the enemy was to reestablish the Islamic Caliphate as it used to be, centered in Baghdad and further, that the long-range goal is to grow the Caliphate over the next 100 years until Islam extends it’s sway over the entire earth. In a very significant statement, he said that our enemy has patience and we don’t.
As background to the need for a change in strategy in Iraq, he stated that success in Iraq is critical to the global war on terror and vital to our national interest. Failure there would be an unprecedented disaster but that there are no silver bullets or quick cures. We have to be patient and keep working the issue. The key to that is efforts to make the peoples of Iraq want to take a positive step and join the new Iraq which is, unlike both the old and present Iraq, free of thuggery and wanton murder and which provides the potential for a positive future for ALL of the Iraqi peoples instead of just one of the many ethnic groups contending there.
General Sattler outlined the 6 crucial elements of the new strategy which include:
After laying out it’s key elements, General Sattler expressed some cautious optimism about how the new strategy is working to date and pointed out that there are some very positive signs including a dramatic reduction in casual violence and killings. He said that Iraqi leader Al-Maliki made a political vow to refrain from partisan favoritism and that he was actually keeping the vow. In a country split 3 ways along ethnic and religious lines, rising above divisive bias and setting an example for political fairness is doing much to reduce political friction and seems to be increasing Iraqi confidence in a political solution for a united Iraq. The “Hydrocarbon Law”, an agreement to share petrochemical sector revenue between those provinces that have the resources with those that don’t, is being negotiated and is adding to the confidence factor between the conflicting factions.
Diluting the excessively harsh “De Baathification” laws is showing many, currently disenfranchised and disaffected Sunni’s that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that they actually have a future in the political process. An Iraqi UCMJ is in development and Iraqi military leaders are starting to build bonds of loyalty with their men through fairness and sense of example.
In addition to efforts in Iraq, he pointed out that there are also critical steps outside of Iraq that need to be pursued in order to succeed there. The U.S. needs to vigorously engage the other Arab states for support and needs to counter foreign interference from Iran and Syria. We need to continue to seek regional support in the global war on terror, and we need to work on improving relations between Iraq and Turkey who share a border and a disenfranchised ethnic group in the Kurdish people. Finally, we need to engage the United Nations in providing Iraqi election support and constitutional review.
Changing gears, Lt Gen Sattler spoke about some adaptations needed in the U.S. government that will contribute to success both in Iraq and the global war on terror but also in future contingencies. Specifically, he pointed to some interagency coordination and capacity problems and also to problems with current funding mechanisms. Indicating that most of the problem solvers in Iraq, Afghanistan and other troubled regions wore a military uniform, he pointed out that this was indicative of a lack of capacity in the U.S. Department of State who should be much more represented. DOS has to develop a Civil Reserve Corps, which would be an organization with immediately deployable staff possessing a range of skills needed to cope with crisis and unrest. He said that there needs to be the equivalent of a “Goldwater-Nichols” act for interagency cooperation improvements between the various branches of U.S. Government and that we need to arrive at “Whole of Government “ solutions. Addressing funding constraints, Lt Gen Sattler pointed to the need for a National Security Initiative Fund of up to a billion dollars, which would be readily available to respond to a crisis or rise to a fleeting opportunity that the current system does not allow.
The Marine Corps Association thanks Lt Gen Sattler for taking time from his busy schedule to share his thoughts.
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In addition, MCA thanks our corporate sponsors for supporting the first of our MCA Ground Dinner's this year.
Platinum Gold Sponsors
Platinum Silver Sponsors
Platinum Bronze Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
| Alion Science & Technology | SRA International |
| BAE Systems | General Dynamics ATP |
| Boeing | L-3 Titan |
| CACI | Oshkosh Truck |
| IBM | Rolls Royce |
| Professional Solutions | Talley |
| Raytheon (Quantico Field Office), | Wackenhut Services, Inc. |
| Sprint |
