Yer Feet's Too Big
Who's that walkin' round here,
Sounds like baby patter, baby elephant patter
that's what I calls it...
There were four of us, me, your big feet and you...
There's just too much feet. Yes, your feets too big
--Fats Waller version, Your Feet's Too Big
Sounds like baby patter, baby elephant patter
that's what I calls it...
There were four of us, me, your big feet and you...
There's just too much feet. Yes, your feets too big
--Fats Waller version, Your Feet's Too Big
A place for everything, and everything in its place. What follows are some simple thoughts on running a democracy well.
Get the profiteers out of the field of operations, and get the statesmen into the deliberation room. We do not need men in boots stomping about Town Hall a la Paul Bremer, neither theirs nor ours. Sending U.S. military officers to Iraqi civilian town hall meetings does not further the agenda of civilian control. This leads the indigenous population to believe that the military should be in control. Yet the U.S. official policy is that there is an official Iraqi civilian government.
We should bring back the concept of civil military operations. The State Department has historically been the lead agency in this venue; bring them back.
The State Department should identify the threats of state- and non-state sponsored terrorism, issue appropriate warnings, and deal with the U.N. to address these threats. If the U.N. fails to act, then U.S. policy should address the issue. Terrorism is not a military issue. (If anybody still believes that it is, then he hasn't been awake this century.)
The CIA needs to regain its rightful place in foreign intelligence--that of assessing threats against American interests. The CIA should be distinct and separate from Department of Defense policy. The CIA must counterbalance military intelligence, with a possible dissenting opinion. All intelligence is not military.
A dedicated counter-intelligence career field should also be developed within the FBI . Had this function not been trivialized prior to 9-11, that attack certainly could have been avoided. All of the intelligence indicators were there to indicate an impending attack. Don't go stomping around with big feet; lead with big, as in expansive, thoughts.
posted by rangeragainstwar at 3:33 PM
8 Comments:
You should massively build out your engineering corps for civilian maintenance to begin with, instead of outsourcing everything. The management of the contracts in Iraq leaves me grasping for words. Capitalists at war, its a joke. That the british in Kandahar are short on helicopters, or that the US battleorder is more or less in tatters after just five years says something about the reality-parameters of your current administration. To loose a war because of corruption gives me a real italian taste in the mouth..
Well said, valid observations. I suspect they come from your closer observation of the world, whereas I speak specifically from insitutional knowledge, which is somewhat dated. I appreciate receiving a more international viewpoint. As you can tell, my focus is my Army, but this must be put in the context of world affairs.
Let's don't confuse warmaking with nationbuilding. If we're nationbuilding, the engineer function you're describing should come under USAID. But the US seems to ignore this approach lately. It would be wise to increase the engineer assets as you recommend, not only for warfighting, but also for civilian disaster relief. Your comments, as always, are solid and appreciated.
Thanks for comment back. I appreciate your focus, our problem is that we have to deal with the consequences of the US juggernaut.
Re: Nationbuilding vs.warmaking: I think that the problem is that those things inevitably hang together these days. In Lebanon (UNIFIL), we learned a lot about contributing on the ground. The US is as a force viewed always as maximum violence all the time, Marine-style. I know that the Rangers are much better than that, and are capable of sophisticated operations.
But you need to build a one-two punch, with army-run non-profit engineering squads working overtime. Not corrupt welders working hard, you could have rebuilt Baghdad, but that window of opportunity is past.
Martin,
I wish I shared your belief re. the flexibility of the Rangers. I believe your comments perhaps apply better to our Special Forces. The Rangers are generally direct action troops, just like the Marines. But thanks for the compliment, nonetheless.
As you infer, nationbuilding doesn not have to be linked with warmaking.
US Rangers have good rep.You did Kurdistan. Only outfit from the blessed lands to make it,
Marines are meatgrinders. Army-standard is Warthog 011 and f%&k you. We are not necessarily impressed.
As a Ranger, I thank you for the good assessment.
Hmmm, sorry for the harshness of last post, two drinks below the belt and cyber-warrior adrenaline on. BTW, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1951325,00.html for thelimey-assesment of the situation. Guardian is the best paper in the world.
Thanks for the Guardian link. I read it sporadically--always good to get all the viewpoints. The link you sent indicates the universal nature of infantry close combat.
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