[antimedia] antimedia: Three days ago Bruce Kesler published an article....

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Posted by antimedia:
Three days ago Bruce Kesler published an article....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1170818001.shtml


   ....that should [1]be read by everyone in government. He addressed the
   need for a coordinated, cross-agency effort to win the war on terror.

     The Iraq Study Groupâs recommendations included the following
     three:

     RECOMMENDATION 74: In the short term, if not enough civilians
     volunteer to fill key positions in Iraq, civilian agencies must
     fill those positions with directed assignments. Steps should be
     taken to mitigate familial or financial hardships posed by directed
     assignments, including tax exclusions similar to those authorized
     for U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq.
     RECOMMENDATION 75: For the longer term, the United States
     government needs to improve how its constituent agenciesâDefense,
     State, Agency for International Development, Treasury, Justice, the
     intelligence community, and othersârespond to a complex stability
     operation like that represented by this decadeâs Iraq and
     Afghanistan wars and the previous decadeâs operations in the
     Balkans. They need to train for, and conduct, joint operations
     across agency boundaries, following the Goldwater-Nichols model
     that has proved so successful in the U.S. armed services.
     RECOMMENDATION 76: The State Department should train personnel to
     carry out civilian tasks associated with a complex stability
     operation outside of the traditional embassy setting. It should
     establish a Foreign Service Reserve Corps with personnel and
     expertise to provide surge capacity for such an operation. Other
     key civilian agencies, including Treasury, Justice, and
     Agriculture, need to create similar technical assistance
     capabilities.

     Along with many others, these recommendations have received scant
     attention, or been dismissed as either too large or serious a
     project for our chattering politicians.
     Instead of seeking headlines or to micromanage tactics, the
     Congress should be holding serious studies and hearings on how to
     accomplish better agency capacities and coordination. The
     administration should be proactive in offering concrete
     recommendations, and in engaging in serious consultations with the
     Congress. This will demonstrate whether either the White House or
     the Congress is serious about better waging the long war that both
     admit weâre in.

   The problem is, our politicians, on both sides of the aisle, would
   rather dicker over turf and committee assignments than do anything
   substantive to improve our country. We are ruled by morally bereft,
   self-aggrandizing egoists whose primary concern is self-enrichment.
   Like Nero, they fiddle while Rome burns.

References

   1. http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/003113.html