Brookings: A Conversation with General Jaqueline Van Ovost of US Transportation Command

 To interview her in the capacity of the Commander under the Department of Defense were Michael O'Hanlon of Brookings and Colonel in the US Air Force Jason Wolff, also of the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy and Technology group at Brookings.  The interview was held at Brookings, Tuesday, June 6, 2023 from 3-4 PM.   

We, the public, don't get a chance to locate the department that considers complaints of mobile movements of the military across the globe; and so I was delighted to be able to listen to Ms. Van Ovost describe some of the activities her office deals with.  To me, I finally found someone to complain to--I think!  We come into contact with movement of the military personnel during evacuation of personnel, for example.  I'm thinking of when our troops were pulling out of Saigon, South Vietnam, some years ago.  The chaos of the final plane leaving the ground.  Who can forget it?  It caused me to wonder, are troop movements governed by levels of secrecy, such that multiple sites for evacuation would lessen the problems encountered, when so many felt they were being ignored and would succumb to being left behind?  

One would think the final plane taking off from a land being vacated by the military would be a mop-up crew of soldiers, only--not people feeling disparate at their encountered plight!  

But then again, when our military were pulling out of Kabul, Afghanistan the same sort of chaos seemed to be occurring at the city's airport!  Indeed, people were hanging on some object of the plane during its takeoff!  Again, there was no secrecy and apparently little staggering of planes taking off from multiple locations for country exit.

Impressions are made regarding the exit from a country.  Our leaving Afghanistan in such a hurry, might have given President Putin of Russia the impression that, if he were contemplating Russia's swallowing up Ukraine, he would not encounter protest from the West to thwart any such attempt.

But there's another major instance involving troop movement during war game exercises of the United States with our allies.  Again, might they go off without a complaint by neighboring countries in the area?  The use of levels of secrecy might enable others to go about their business and not be concerned that the war games are being conducted in the region.  Or again, our planes have sometimes been accompanied by some foreign country's airplane or ship.  Could departure or arrival times be closed mouthed publicly to prevent an incident?

In any case, I think the movement of the military must be governed by making sure the people who need to know of the movements are informed and that the business of others is not a cause for our unpopularity when we're not interfering with others' exercise of their rights.