U.S. Needs A New Approach To National Security
This is from a post by LoreleiKelly at BlogHer.
National Security and the Defense Budget are Not the Same Thing.
If we’ve learned anything from our experience in Iraq, it is that easy assumptions are no longer true. Even military commanders suggest that the vast majority of our challenges in Iraq do not have military solutions. These are lessons we should have learned fifteen years ago. I remember sitting in congressional hearings in 1998, watching generals like Wesley Clark talk about the military’s peace operations in the Balkans before the House Armed Services Committee. He spoke of the military’s need for skills like knowledge of culture, history, language and politics. Today we’re hearing these themes echoed in Iraq, and to a lesser extent Afghanistan. Generals testify that the dilemma we face is a political challenge. That the use of force has become counterproductive at every level….from the national strategy of pre-emptive war to the tactic of kicking down doors and terrifying families. Last year, to better implement its hearts and minds campaign, the military implemented a counter insurgency strategy in Iraq. This strategy places civilian protection at the center of US activities–and has yielded impressive results. The discussion of why these tactics work needs to be separated from the larger, very contentious public argument over staying in or leaving Iraq. Why? because the theme of protecting people holds true for many of our security problems today.
We’re in the midst of a dramatic shift in how we develop a strategy for US security–moving from reaction to pro-action, away from coercion and force and toward persuasion and cooperation. During the Soviet era that ended in 1991, the organizing principle of US security was containment of communist ideology. It was characterized by continual military readiness, the nuclear arms race, mutual assured destruction and super power summits. Today, containment is obsolete. Our organizing principle must be legitimacy, or leading by example. In other words, we must demonstrate that we will play by the same set of rules that we establish for others. And while a strong military remains vital, we need to ask, what is real security today?
The new reality in the post-September 11 world is that protection from terrorist attacks and other security challenges can only be provided by broadening our vision of national security to include law enforcement, intelligence, immigration policy, border security, foreign assistance, economic development, and diplomacy. These are all personnel-intensive missions. We desperately need smart, creative individuals working in national security. Congress needs to hear this so they will stop complaining about “more bureaucrats” and redirect some of those billions of dollars spent on Soviet-era weapons programs toward recruiting talent and modernizing the division of labor for our nation’s security.
READ THIS FULL POST AT BLOGHER
