Para_Frog 1 #1 February 9, 2008 I see this every day. They need to make this guy SECSTATE tomorrow- Harvey, BASE 1232 TAN-I, IAD-I, S&TA BLiNC Magazine Team Member Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1969912 0 #2 February 9, 2008 Some people don't trust "Faux News", so..... http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=4263378 "Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ." -NickDG Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nerdgirl 0 #3 February 9, 2008 Thanks for the heads’ up, particularly the one that linked to Miranda’s 10-page memo. Reading the full memo - with which I largely concur - I would posit that this is further evidence of the need for pro-active, intentional SSTR operations. Now. Miranda, for right or wrong, directs his critique at the Foreign Service Corps – the diplomats. Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) are *not* selected to do reconstruction. He argues for more autonomy and a more risk-tolerant (or perhaps even, *risk-embracing*) posture and overcoming the knowledge-hoarding. (Wish he had included a proposal for a solution …). Miranda’s distilled main point and recommendation, throughout, is that the State needs to hire more folks … especially younger folks who “think outside the box.” He’s neither the first nor the only one to have made that argument: SecDef Gates (Mar 07, quoted from official DoD transcript): “Part of the problem -- quite frankly, I think we have two significant problems in this country and in this government in terms of dealing with these kinds of situations, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When I left government, [US]AID [at State Dept] had 16,000 employees. It has 2,000 now. We used to have this kind of a deployable expeditionary capability in the government. That's what these folks did. We don't have that anymore. Now it's more or less a contracting agency. … critical components of the kind of work that needs to be done in both Iraq and Afghanistan have disappeared as assets of the United States government. And so now we're trying to replicate them through volunteers both from the private sector and inside the government, but it's clearly not as fast and not as robust as if -- as when we had those capabilities in-house.” I concur with Miranda that that FSOs are not the folks to do transition & reconstruction operations. Security & stability operations are explicitly the the responsibility of Defense; how fully that Directive is being embraced is another -- but intrinsically connected -- topic. That DoDD also extends to transition & reconstruction. New Army operations manual issued recently states: “Army doctrine now equally weights tasks dealing with the population — stability or civil support — with those related to offensive and defensive operations. Winning battles and engagements is important but alone is not sufficient. Shaping the civil situation is just as important to success.” My recommendation is to staff adequately, empower, and move (even if only temporarily) the Active Response Corps (ARC), Stand-By Response Corps (SRC), & Civilian Reserve Corps (CRC) to DoD (from State), a recommendation w/which I realize some of our former military folks here disagree ... VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DJL 235 #4 February 9, 2008 QuoteI see this every day. They need to make this guy SECSTATE tomorrow So now what? Will anything change?"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nerdgirl 0 #5 February 9, 2008 QuoteQuoteI see this every day. They need to make this guy SECSTATE tomorrow So now what? Will anything change? What would you recommend? Honestly asking. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kallend 2,146 #6 February 9, 2008 Quote Quote Quote I see this every day. They need to make this guy SECSTATE tomorrow So now what? Will anything change? What would you recommend? Honestly asking. VR/Marg No more GOP women and/or minorities for SECSTATE. ... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DJL 235 #7 February 11, 2008 QuoteQuoteQuoteI see this every day. They need to make this guy SECSTATE tomorrow So now what? Will anything change? What would you recommend? Honestly asking. VR/Marg This guy sent a memeo that appears to shed light on what's going on over there but really, he's just one guy and his memo isn't getting much coverage. The American populace isn't intelligent enough to wrap their brains around this and aren't energetic enough to do anything about what they do understand. This memo isn't getting coverage anywhere because it's too confusing and therefore would lose out in ratings in comparison to missing white girls. So...my question was mostly retorical, back to the status quo."I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
