Blackfive: The whole of government approach
| Blogs & New Media | March 9, 2010 9:44 am | Warrior Legacy Institute Fellow Brad Patty has a piece up at the American Security Council Foundation's site about how we need to get all of our agencies on the same page to succeed at stability operations. The world is a dangerous place. Two things make it safer for freedom and families: strong leadership, and charitable efforts for those who need it. The United States military has provided strong leadership that is capable of creating a window of stability even in a failed state. Inside that window of stability, as in the eye of a hurricane, we can try to help the people of the region build strength to stand on their own. That requires charity. If the military is our strength, the civilian agencies are often better equipped to be the directors of humanitarian assiatance. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has reached out to the farthest corners of the world: I have seen docks and water pumping stations built in places like Tawi Tawi and Sanga Sanga in the Philippines. The State Department in Iraq has directed the formation of embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams (ePRTs) that work alongside the military. I have attended meetings where a Brigade Commander sat alongside a Foreign Service Officer, negotiating with tribal sheikhs for the building of drip irrigation projects, support for the poultry industry, or sewing centers. This approach is going to be needed in many places around the world, whether an insurgency, or corruption or other factors are causing a government to fail it's people
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Blackfive: An election in Iraq? Who knew?
| Blogs & New Media | March 8, 2010 9:46 am | So I have to say that the simple fact that the Iraqis held an election and it got as little publicity as it did is a good thing. Sure the reports that did come out focused on the bombings, but if it had gone poorly they all would have piled on. Creaky and messy and still fragile, but it's a bouncing baby democracy. Congratulations to all who had a hand in making that so. Here is a boots on the ground and celebratory bullets raining down report from Bill over at The Donovan's. Right at sunset, after the polls closed over here, the mezzuins started in. They were chanting the same prayers, but the rhythm was subtly different -- they were almost *singing* the prayers, and there were half-heard, half-imagined undertones of music in the background. They were *happy*. I never heard happy calls to prayer before, even in Bosnia during Bajram, which is the Bosnian four-day equivalent of Christmas. Since it's way too early for the election results to be known, there could only have been one thing for them to be happy about -- the fact that there *was* an election, and they voted for whomever they chose, without a diktat from the central government, and without fear that someone would inform on the neighborhood enforcers that they hadn't voted the Party line. They voted for the candidate of *their* choosing
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