Gates: War on terror needs more civilian help

Defense Secretary Robert Gates addresses the crowd during a Landon Lecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. on Nov. 26.


Gates: War on terror needs more civilian help
By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 26, 2007 20:14:14 EST

WASHINGTON — Defeating terrorism will require the use of more “soft power,” with civilians contributing more in non-military areas like communication, economic assistance and political development, Pentagon chief Robert Gates said Monday.

Gates called for the creation of new government organizations, including a permanent group of civilian experts with a wide range of expertise who could be sent abroad on short notice as a supplement to U.S. military efforts. And he urged more involvement by university and other private experts.

“We must focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of the military, beyond just our brave soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen,” he said in a speech at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. “We must also focus our energies on the other elements of national power that will be so crucial in the coming years.”

He said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as U.S. military involvement in the 1990s in the Balkans and in Somalia, have shown that long-term success requires more than U.S. military power.

“Based on my experience serving seven presidents, as a former director of CIA and now as secretary of defense, I am here to make the case for strengthening our capacity to use ‘soft’ power and for better integrating it with ‘hard’ power,” Gates said.

Many have argued that the Bush administration missed opportunities early in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns to head off insurgent resistance by failing to focus on economic development, promotion of internal reconciliation, training of police forces and communication of U.S. goals.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_gates_071126/

in the White House and their backers. This includes people such as Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove. We need to follow the money also.

My going rate is $10,000.00 a week.

The notion that our military personnel would either have the skills or would engage in peaeful, civilian efforts is so ... quaint. After all, where's the profit?

:puke: :puke: