Amend the The West Pacific Armed Forces Bill Act

[Westwind]

HGA Members, the current TWP Armed Forces Bill can be found here:

http://www.westpacific.org/forums/index.php?/topic/319-current-laws-and-legislation/?p=21889

 

 

Given that nations of TWP on the RMB, soldiers of the TWP Military, and regions in general still consider our military by the accronym 'TWPAF', and given that those that preferred to change the name are no longer with us, I hearby propose to amend The West Pacific Armed Forces Bill to restore our military to it's traditional and well known name, 'The West Pacific Armed Forces' from 'The West Pacific Department of Defense'

 

(please note, that the original bill did not meet it's stated goals in the preamble.  It did not increase the number of officers nor assign additional responsibilities.  Nor did the preamble reflect reality in expecting some result of combining TWPAF and ISS, there was nothing for them to share, thus combinnig them accomplished nothing)

 

Even the title of the Bill itself recognizes our traditional name "The West Pacific Armed Forces" bill....only to rename it "The West Pacific Defense Department"  It makes no sense.

 

My amended proposal:

 

 

The West Pacific Armed Forces Bill

 

Preamble

The collection, analysis and distribution of information vital to safeguarding the sovereignty of The West Pacific and its allies is of paramount importance to The West Pacific. This bill seeks to merge the existing functions of the Imperium Secret Service (ISS) and The West Pacific Armed Forces (TWPAF) and assign additional responsibilities to their officers by the placing The West Pacific Armed Forces (TWPAF) in charge of both the military and intelligence needs of the region. This action has become necessary because experience has shown that The West Pacific's regional interests cannot best be served by operating ISS and TWPAF in isolation, as evidenced by the fact that there has been no cooperation between these organisations over the past year.

 

Bill

 

ARTICLE 1

a-) The Imperium Secret Service (ISS) will merge with The West Pacific Armed Forces (TWPAF).

• The components of the merger (ISS and TWPAF) will cease to exist as individual entities and become known as the singular authority, The West Pacific Armed Forces.
• The ISS and TWPAF will be replaced within The West Pacific Armed Forces by two autonomous divisions namely that of the Intelligence Division and the Battle Division.
• When appropriate, the Intelligence Division and the Battle Division will aid each other in the common goal of safeguarding The West Pacific's regional interests.

b-) The role of Field Commander will be expanded to accommodate for the nature of  The West Pacific Armed Forces.

• The title of Field Commander will be held by an individual appointed by the Prime Minister from The West Pacific Armed Forces: Intelligence Division, or from the Battle Division.
• The ​Field Commander will maintain full functional authority over The West Pacific Armed Forces.
  • The Field Commander will select a member of the Battle Division of advanced knowledge and proven skill over Game Mechanics to become War Lord.
  • ​The Field Commander will select a member of the Intelligence Division of advanced knowledge and skill over the practice of acquiring covert information to become Spymaster General.
  • The War Lord and Spymaster General will be of equal rank beneath the Field Commander.
  • The War Lord will maintain complete authority over the Battle Division and the Spymaster General will maintain complete authority over the Intelligence Division.

Article 2

a-) All articles/documents produced by The West Pacific Armed Forces are for internal distribution only are strictly classified.

• Those suspected of replicating or distributing classified documents to anyone outside The West Pacific Armed Forces without the express permission of the ​Field Commander or the Prime Minister will have their access immediately revoked.
  • Those found guilty of replicating or distributing classified documents to anyone outside The West Pacific Armed Forces will be immediately expelled from the organisation so as to remove the security risk and the matter referred to the Judiciary of The West Pacific Imperium under the charge of High Treason.

b-) Any action performed in the name of either the Battle Division or the Intelligence Division must be approved by the relevant departments head for the action to become recognized by The West Pacific.

[Ike]

I like. Tee-wuh-paf is better than Tee-Dohd.

[Consular]

My personal thoughts are that intelligence and military should be separate portfolios. Particularly in GCRs, intelligence concerns are far greater than merely provision of battle related information to the military. I've always regarded militaries as capable of conducting their own intelligence operations without the need for them to have a separate intelligence department. But if everyone else disagrees with that, and thinks the two divisions are good like this, I don't particularly mind.

 

I will say I find this whole hierarchy to be something of a mess. Delegate > Field Commander > The two division heads > Everyone else. I would have suggested simply: Delegate (CinC) > The divison heads, War Lord (or whatever) and Spymaster. Otherwise we have this elaborate chain of command that has as far as I can tell little purpose. I suppose the problem with this would be intel would no longer be subject to the appointed commander though, which I guess was the whole point of the bill, so I don't know. It's just my opinion that the whole thing is messy - no other military I can think of has such a convoluted command structure.

 

My final point would be I dislike the PM appointing the Commander. Partially because I don't like the PM office as noted elsewhere, and more importantly because I think the military head should always be appointed or at the very least confirmed by the Delegate, since they must remain CinC.

 

A final note; betrayal of information is just treason, I don't think it qualifies as high treason. The latter is usually reserved for absolutely colossal betrayals.

[Cormac]

I tend to agree with Archsium that military and intelligence should be separate portfolios, but it appears to me that they are basically separate -- just both under the Armed Forces. The intelligence division nonetheless is separate from the military division. So I'm personally comfortable with that part.

 

I do agree though that the chain of command is a bit more complicated than necessary. I don't think there's anything wrong with Delegate > Division Heads. The intelligence division does need some degree of autonomy, as its work should really, in its totality, only be totally known to one or two people. Those one or two people should be the Delegate and the head of the intelligence division. And I don't think we need a position that is just responsible for appointing and overseeing the two division heads; the Delegate can appoint them, and the Delegate and Assembly together can oversee them, at least the military which undertakes public actions that are reviewable by the Assembly.

 

Agreed with the Delegate rather than the Prime Minister making these appointments. Military and intelligence have a direct relationship to game-side and fall under the Delegate's purview; they're not just a component of the forum government.

[Elegarth]

As per this declaration:

http://www.westpacific.org/forums/index.php?/topic/1236-standard-procedures-of-the-regional-assembly-speaker-declaration/

This proposal is considered to be right now in the period of informal discussion.

[Consular]

I would appreciate the input of the actual military commanders on this I think.

[Mediobogdum]

Upon reflection, I have withdrawn my original comments.

[Darkesia]

Tried to add a couple thoughts but my phone hates this venue. Please remind me tomorrow to post.

[Llamas]

I'd like to note that I very much agree with Arch's previous point on the separation of the intelligence and military. I see little to no reason for us to have to add a completely unnecessary position to the regional bureaucracy; the office of Field Commander does almost nothing that the individual branch heads could not do themselves.

 

As such, I'd like to request that somebody draft a bill separating the two branches and removing the office of Field Commander.

[URAP]

I agree with the above.

[Fratellnoir]

I'd like to note that I very much agree with Arch's previous point on the separation of the intelligence and military. I see little to no reason for us to have to add a completely unnecessary position to the regional bureaucracy; the office of Field Commander does almost nothing that the individual branch heads could not do themselves.

 

As such, I'd like to request that somebody draft a bill separating the two branches and removing the office of Field Commander.

Really Llamas, this is how you repay me?    

 

When I first arrived in TWP I had just effectively disbanded TRF - not the organisation that Misley now heads up, but rather the force that included Proletaurus and La Passionaria, Marxingrad and Cuba Socialista

 

Now these names may not mean anything to you, acting as we did on the peripheries of gameplay by concentrating on the Left vs Right political aspect of GP rather than the more common Raider/Defender/Independant/Imperialist mainstream - i guess you could say it was a little bit of a sideshow.

 

We we were generally regarded as pariahs - we didn't conform to the orthodoxy, so we couldn't be trusted. 

 

This isolation meant that we did not enjoy the "tools" that other militaries enjoyed to identify targets, we did not benefit from having experienced veterans, we had learn bu our mistakes.

 

And boy did we make mistakes! Our "participation" if it can be called that, in the attempt to liberate THe Proletariat Coalition highlighted our inexperience in update operations. However it also revealed how little trust the Establishment really had for us, and coloured my own perception of Defenders - frankly they are not prepared to do everything that is necessary to stop raiders

 

However, after a tentative start our sideshow became a viable force, we developed our own trackers and tactics to maximise our limited resources  - Strange as it may seem, we never actively recruited for members, they came to us  and our offsite HQ for active participants boasted 230 members at it height.

 

We were courted by Raider and Defender alike to throw our hat in the ring with them. They failed to realise that our objectives simply did not converge, so assumed we must be siding with their opponents. Natuaraly our dealing with the "Imperialists" were slightly more delicate, being philosophically opposed to their viewpoint, but I can reveal that intel was provided by TRF to enable certain regions of interest to be wrested from the hands of "fascists", and naturally we were more than happy to provide aid to any GCR campaign against Nazi Europe   .

 

Over time our "contribution" to Gameplay did register - I think both TRF and Antifa have been up for condemnation more than once, but neither have ever been awarded probably because we never fit wit the accepted profile!

 

So what has all this to do with the topic at hand I hear you say?

 

Well, I bought to TWPAF the experience of bringing together a collection of disparate bunch of individuals with varying skills and objectives, and by providing an environment in which they could learn and put to practice their ideas forged a cohesive, co-operative unit that were able to stand in the field against raider defender and the WA (we refounded more than one region that was subject to Liberation Proposals at the 11th hour!  ) 

 

Although I was present on many missions, my circumstances meant that I could not take part in the majority, and therefore had to entrust my colleagues to do the deed, but everything was planned and outlined beforehand.

 

Our objectives were clear, and support, either in the form of advice or WA's was always given if it was available

 

When TWPAF was looking for a Commander I considered applying but ruled myself out because of my absence at updates, as I am sure Westwind will testify, and concentrated instead on projecting TWP's influence in whatever way I could - some of you may be familiar with the Reef Hound project.

 

When recent changes to the structure meant I could adopt the post be acknowledging the Warlord would effectively act at update rather than requiring my presence everytime I was happy to accept the PM's offer.

 

The point is that to lead an effective force in Military Gameplay it is not  necessary to always deploy at update - by limiting ourselves to such operations we limit opportunities to project TWP's power far and wide. If you want to raid at update go joid TBR, if you want to defend at update only, see what FRA are up to (but don't hold your breath) .

 

If you want to have a lasting impact...........then accept that TWPAF has to be different

 

I am not afraid of getting my hands dirty so to speak, but I also see the disadvantages of having resources tied up that could be deployed more effectively elsewhere - flexibility is a prize that is well worth having if we wish to exploit ad hoc situations

 

However, regardless of structure, nothing can be achieved unless TWPAF has objectives, and it is that  which will provide the spur to activity. Once we know where we want to go then we can plan accordingly.

[Elegarth]

Please check and read updated procedures for the HGA, in case you need / want to continue discussion on this topic:

http://www.westpacific.org/forums/index.php?/topic/1236-standard-procedures-of-the-regional-assembly-speaker-declaration/

Thanks!