The Command We Must Start

In 1928, Secretary of War Dwight Davis ordered the Army to assemble an experimental mechanized force of tanks, armored cars, and motorized infantry at Camp Meade, Maryland. It was disbanded within months. A second attempt was dissolved in 1931, when the Army told each of its branches to mechanize itself. The infantry kept the tanks, the cavalry built “combat cars” to work around a law that gave tanks to the infantry, and the United States created its Armored Force in July 1940, weeks after France fell. The Army had the idea twelve years before it had the force.Owen West and Max Strasiser, who are building the Autonomous Warfare Command, cited the 1928 force in their October 21 open letter as the fragmentation the country must not repeat. They are right, and the week since shows how it happens. The command’s plan of action and milestones was due to the Secretary of War on October 30, and no one has reported that it arrived. The Pentagon is drafting a budget of about $1.1 trillion against a $1.5 trillion request, Politico reports, and the command rests on $54 billion in a reconciliation bill that has not passed and has no backup, according to Defense One. No commander has been named....