It's Not Either-Or Posted by Suzanne Nossel

Derek - I completely agree on the need to bolster support for our military - spanning across more training, better equipment, veterans health care and benefits, and predictable and less burdensome tours of duty for reservists.  I also agree that the military has performed admirably under difficult circumstances in an infinite array of roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

As for them doing it best, your logic is circular:  they do it best because there's no one else who does it at all. During the early days in Iraq there was a lot of carping about the military being pressed into jobs they were ill-suited for or did not want to do.  That they've risen to the occasion does not mean that shoe-horning a military organization into such a wide array of demanding civilian functions is the best long-term solution.

Having one organization responsible for everything from rewiring schools to guarding prisons to launching bunker busters almost guarantees that some things will be done badly.   In an organization with a military culture, civilian roles are always going to play second-fiddle.   There may also be aspects of military culture (the training, the hierarchies, the codes of loyalty and silence) that don't translate optimally into civilian functions.  There are also problems of perception that arise from bundling all these functions into one:  some occupation soldiers in Iraq were responsible for conciliating disputes by day, and storming safe houses in the same town by night.   It's impossible for one person to be both a trusted political interlocutor and a violent enforcer at the same time.

A dedicated stabilization force would also be a way of drawing in elites, helping to bridge the socio-economic and political divide between our existing military and those that set and influence the policies they implement.  Surely this is better than preying on ever more vulnerable and less suitable populations as military recruits.

Upshot is I don't think the very real and pressing stresses on our military ought to stand in the way of long-term thinking about how to approach stabilization operations.  What I am proposing is not a short-term fix, and doesn't allay the need to address the imminent problems you cite.   But one shouldn't stand in the way of the other.

Comments

[Lane Brody]

The idea of a "stabilization force" has been promoted rather effectively in defense circles by Thomas Barnett (The Pentagon's New Map). One often overlooked aspect of this notion is that the "stabilization force", or Barnett's sys admin force, is that creating such a dedicated force only makes sense if it is always being used.

The implications of this are far-reaching and should be understood before we as a nation go down this road. It might be an excellent idea but politically it's foreign aid and it will also directly compete for dollars with the Dept of Defense.

Lane Brody

[Asda Story gold]

Do you like the Asda Story money?I think that if you know it you will like it. If you have it you can go to buy Asda Story Gold and then you can go to buy equipment to arm yourself. You can also get some cheap Asda Story gold from the game. Join us and play the game with us together.

[Perfect World Gold]

I hope i can get Perfect World Silver in low price.

[ghost online gold]

I likeghost gold, it brings me many happiness. If you haveghost online gold, you can help others.

[age of conan gold]

I hope i can get aoc gold in low price,
Yesterday i bought conan gold for my friend.

[runescape money]

I like the runescape gold, my brother usually
buy runescape for me. I appriciate him.

[conan gold]

Once I played AOC, I did not know how to get strong, someone told me that you must have aoc gold.He gave me some conan gold.

[muhtar]

Thank you for your sharing.!
seslichat
seslisohbet

[cheap coach handbags]

Thank you for your sharing! I like i very much!

[rokettube]

en azdırıcı porn videoları,
en güzel porn izleme sitesi,
en muhteşem sex izleme yeri,
en kaliteli anal porno mekanı,
bu sitede en tatlı amatör porno kızları bulunuyor,
en kral sikiş videoları,
en uzun porno videoları,
türk pornoda olay var..