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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (102721)	6/25/2003 9:34:54 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Friedman has a good column today.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (102721)	6/25/2003 10:09:46 AM
From: Sig	Respond to of 281500

Perhaps we should set up a Nation Building Agency, or NBA, so we will be better prepared next time an Iraq situation develops. That could be useful in ten or maybe 15 years. Perhaps for some African State . We could have the basic manpower and system outlines (democatic) all set up and ready to go, would not have to ask the natives what kind of government they want, which causes such delays Better to keep it secret tho, as the UN may frown on it. We are not out to make whole Countries afraid of the US, just the Terrorist organizations. Sig .

To: stockman_scott who wrote (102721)	6/25/2003 10:35:01 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

leaving a security and administrative vacuum, which the U.S. military was utterly unprepared to fill. The U.S. forces arrived in Iraq with far too few military police and civilian affairs officers to run the country. I believe Friedman has nailed this one correctly as well, painful as the realization is for me. But I'm not here to be a hack for the Bush administration, even if I strongly believe in the mission to change the regime in Iraq and restructure it with some kind of foundation for future democracy (even if it takes decades). I'm surprised that it seems the post-war operation is woefully under-funded, under-planned, and consists mainly of "crisis management". The first thing the US should have done in Iraq was to be prepared to vet the previous poliice force and to hire and train new Iraqis of all the ethnic groups. An internal police force is imperative for maintain social order. It's a position of power and authority within ANY society, but especially those of the mid-east, and willing recruits, if properly paid, would be swamping recruitment offices. Obviously basic infrastructure, food, and health care are equally important, but social order, carried out under a set of just and fair laws, is the only means for creating any foundation for democratic reforms and political legitimacy. People want to eat, work, and have access to any other basic human needs. But their primary basic need is security and social order. Until order exists, you can't attract investment dollars; engage in infrastructure improvement; or spur local commerce to resume. These are "no-brainers" that should have been part of any post-war plan of action. And frankly, I'm not seeing any particular evidence of that having been incorporated. And while I could care less about paying Iraqi officers back wages, I do see the efficacy of placing them in managerial positions (closely supervised) where they are engaged in administering clean-up and rebuilding efforts. From my perspective, we're seeing evidence that lessons of the past (occupation of Germany/Japan.. etc) have been ignored. And we'll eventually get ahead of this learning curve as well, but the lessons learned will likely find their way into some deep file over in the Pentagon library. Hawk