flapjack,
Be careful, cunning Cummings has been able to get you to take your eye off the ball. Not smart. You're getting snookered.
Here's something that's much more important to the future of the world (evangelicals are betting on 2010, tops) than discussions of an elite child in a discovery period.
ARMY SAYS F*** PEACE!, THE KOUGHBOY DIKTATOR SAYS "YEAH, BABY!"
story.news.yahoo.com
Peace? F*** Peace. It costs too much........
Army Closing Peacekeeping Office
Fri May 31, 5:40 PM ET
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army has decided to close its Peacekeeping Institute, the only arm of the military devoted entirely to developing principles of how to conduct peacekeeping missions, officials said Friday.
The unannounced decision came after months of deliberation. It is part of a move to cut staff positions at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., where the institute is based.
Col. Tom Begines, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon (news - web sites), said he was unaware of any decision. Other Army officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision was made this week.
The Peacekeeping Institute is to be closed by September 2003. Some of its functions probably will be absorbed by the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., officials said.
The institute was created in July 1993 to guide the Army's thinking on the conduct of peacekeeping missions, to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of specific missions and to promote Army exchanges with international organizations involved in peace operations.
Three months after its creation, a peacekeeping effort in Somalia that had evolved into a manhunt turned suddenly bloody on the streets of Mogadishu. Two Army Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed and the Clinton administration quickly ended the mission.
William Nash, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he was disappointed by the Army's decision but not sure of its long-term effect. Nash, a retired Army major general, was commander of NATO (news - web sites)-led peacekeeping forces in Bosnia during the first year after the civil war ended in 1995.
"It's too soon to tell if it's good or bad," he said in an interview.
The Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping, a nonpartisan group that includes nongovernmental organizations, academics and others interested in peacekeeping issues, said in a statement that military commanders have come to rely on the Peacekeeping Institute.
"Since its establishment PKI has maintained an outstanding reputation among our allies, the United Nations (news - web sites) secretariat and within the U.S. government," the group said. "Eliminating this function will be a setback in U.S. foreign policy. It will send a clear message that the U.S. has disengaged from peace operations."
Kenneth Bacon, president of Refugees International and a former assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said the Army stands to lose an important resource at a time when peacekeeping is of growing importance.
"They're dismantling an office that has brought real expertise and perspective" to peacekeeping, he said.
Closing the Peacekeeping Institute does not mean the Army will stop doing peacekeeping missions.
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On the Net: Peacekeeping Institute: carlisle-www.army.mil |
