Hogwash. Happiness is a smoking hole in the ground. With dead heathens doing the smoking.
Posted on 12/31/2008 2:49:18 PM PST by crazyhorse691
The military can't -- and shouldn't -- be the primary way that the U.S. deals with the world
A season when America is focused on difficult problems in Gaza, Iraq, Iran, Afghan istan and Pakistan is a good time to reconsider this country's heavy reliance on the military to do its diplomatic work. In fact, the U.S. civilian diplomatic corps and foreign aid agencies have been drastically undersupplied and undervalued this decade. The incoming Obama administration can and should correct this imbalance.
It's not that the military hasn't done everything that's been asked of it and, by and large, done it well. But soft power delivered by armed soldiers riding in armored vehicles isn't the same as soft power delivered by civilian diplomats who are well-versed in local cultural, legal and economic issues. Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates has renewed emphasis on negotiations as well as warfare. In the war on terror, he has said, "the United States cannot kill or capture its way to victory."
In a revealing essay in the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Ambassador J. Anthony Holmes, now a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, notes just how asymmetric the weight of U.S. policy has become. "Where are the civilians?" he asks rhetorically. "The answer is: They do not exist."
The Defense Department had a 2008 budget of $750 billion, while the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development together had budgets totaling $31 billion. All in all, including defense-related programs at such agencies as NASA and the Department of Energy, Holmes notes, defense and intelligence account for 99 cents of every dollar Washington spends on national security and foreign affairs; just a penny goes to diplomacy and foreign aid.
These facts, combined with the critical fact that the military is stretched to the breaking point by its campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, point to the way the United States must recalibrate its approach to foreign affairs. If 99 cents of every dollar spent in that realm have gone to defense and intel;igence, and the nation faces increasing crises in its relations abroad, it's time to enrich the blend to give increased weight to civilian soft power.
Fortunately, Hillary Clinton, the nominee to become the next secretary of state, seems the type of person who can assert herself in the kind of internal discussions that seemed to overwhelm incumbent Condoleezza Rice. Where Rice saw herself as an instrument of the White House, Clinton is more likely to carve out an ambitious role for the State Department. And in this, she is likely to have the support of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and even Defense Secretary Gates.
It will be a very different environment in Washington come Jan. 20 and with hard work and finesse, it should become a better environment for America's place in the world.
Is smoking marijuana legal in Oregon?
Yeah Oregon, you know the score............bulloney
“...In fact, the U.S. civilian diplomatic corps and foreign aid agencies have been drastically undersupplied and undervalued this decade. ..”
Sir that “corps” consists of wimpy liberal arts types who couldn’t pass a simple course in logic, let alone comprehend ideas which require more than two steps of logic. They are in government simply because they cannot produce.
They are loons, pure and simple.
You as a journalist - fit right in.
What tripe! The leftist editorial board at this rag sound like Pelosi, Reid and Murtha all rolled into one.
It appears to me that Gaza has actually been written off by those that matter. Those includes W, the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan and of course the Israelis. Gaza is being pounded into irrelevance.
On the flip side, the west bank has a security force trained in Jordan by An American General ahd we know nothing of the nationalities of his staff or the trainers. Last week it was revealed that major projects and investment is underway in Bethlehem. Someone figured out Bethlehem was a major asset and tourist revenue and jobs site.
These actions have taken place under the radar of the press. The west bank is peaceful and being rewarded. Gaza is being punished and severely damaged.
Blah,blah,blah,bla
The big lie in this piece is that so very much of that 99 cents is in fact directed at a variety of activities that SHOULD be State/diplomatic activities and projects......IOW misuse of the Military
It appears to me that Gaza has actually been written off by those that matter. Those includes W, the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan and of course the Israelis. Gaza is being pounded into irrelevance.
There have been rumors that the Egyptian Army is being mobilized -- not to attack Israel, but to block the border with Gaza, providing an anvil to the IDF's hammer.
Similarly, there have been rumors that there is general understanding among the US, Europe, Israel, Egypt, the Saudis -- and the PA -- that Hamas must be made to disappear.
The way it is playing out so far suggests that these rumors have legs.
This 99 cents thing should be evaluated more closely.
For example, about 82% of the defense budget is simply for personnel costs; the pay and benefits for all the members of the military. The vast majority of our standing military members are not in war zones. It might be more meaningful to compare the costs of fighting in war zones vs. these other diplomatic matters.
Then again, even most liberals/radicals/Demcrats agreed with us going into Afghanistan to go after Bin Laden, so then you would have to split that out and say that is a “legitimate” use of American military power, if you want to go down the road they are going down.
Can the astute editorial board of The Oregonian list any successes that have been achieved by the diplomatic corps and foreign aid agencies?
That would be helpful...
Hey, Oregonian Editorial board! Next time you need to call 911 for police help, why don’t you insist that they send someone with a bowl of soup and a vase of flowers to deal with the armed robber who is holding your family hostage?
Maybe they could also send someone to read poetry, perform modern dance, or paint a mural on your garage door?
(”idiots”, he mutters to himself...)
Hogwash. Happiness is a smoking hole in the ground. With dead heathens doing the smoking.
Both Jimmie Carter and Slick Willie Clinton emphasized “diplomacy” and that got us terrorism, embassy bombings and 9/11.
It should be added that the State dept. simply failed in Iraq. Bremer took the wheel and swerved into occupation. ‘’Talented’’ state department officers struggled to avoid postings there. If the State department wanted us to lose, how would it have behaved differently?
Seems to me that after the invasion of Iraq, few diplomats were willing to serve there. Wasn’t serious pressure applied to make some of them accept their assignments— not that they contributed a whole lot over there anyway. There’s not a lot a pantywaisted mollycoddle can do in any case, of course.
The military budget in the past eight years reflects:
1. Twelve years of diplomatic failure over Iraq (1991 to 2003) - the biggest diplomatic failure and consequently the largest contribution to the military budget.
2. More than sixty years of diplomatic failure in the Middle East in general, regarding Israel and it’s neighbors.
3. Constant diplomatic failure from Jimmy Carter on, regarding Iran.
The U.S. military ONLY comes in to use when the world has to admit that diplomats cannot solve every condition that may lead to a crisis and diplomatic delays without diplomatic solutions may in fact produce the kinds of crisis that the military must finally provide an answer for. (as was the case with Iraq)
Diplomatic delays can lead an opponent to believe, in error, that the situation does not have to be resolved at all. That was the case with Saddam Hussein. It is currently the case with Iran.
And it has always been the case with the Arabs in Palestine. Unable to obtain their demands through either terrorism, war OR diplomacy, and having indoctrinated their people into the belief that all their demands must be met, their diplomats cannot prefer peace with Israel over demanding that their untenable demands be met. This is the “status quo”, “Palestinian” tune since 1948 and every Western diplomatic brigade has either failed to admit it (as Hillary fails to admit it) or failed to overcome it.
Either way, at it’s heart, it is not a U.S. or Western “diplomatic” failure, because it is an error that the Arabs of Palestine must correct. It is not an error derived from either learned or stupid (Clinton) diplomatic approaches and unless the Palestinian Arabs decide that any major form of peace with Israel is more important than ANYTHING else, no amount of diplomacy from anyone will stop the constant security struggle for Israel and the impact of that struggle on Arabs in Palestine.
The “military solution” (in the past eight years): (1) provided an end and an answer to whether or not Saddam Hussein would be allowed to continue and/or restart his quest for WMDs; (2) provided the most vibrant democratic national government process in the entire Middle East region, outside of Israel and Turkey; (3) dealt a major strategic and public relations blow to Al Queda (demonstrating their broad “public” approval was a myth); and (4) is providing the staging ground for peaceful secular political accommodation between the dominant Shia and Sunni strains in Islam, in the heart of the Middle East, against the backdrop of theocratic imperial solutions sought elsewhere by Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Four things that “diplomacy” could not create the conditions for, because those able to provide those conditions were never going to be willing participants, diplomatically, in those efforts; no matter what Western diplomats understood, believed, desired or demanded.
We can only best hope that the Middle East players - who hope Hillary and the Obamanots will continue to believe their Middle East myths - will try to take military advantage of their stupidity sooner rather than later. The longer the diplomatic myths are believed, the more drastic can become the possible military crisis that will arise.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.