(Article source)Led by the military, war-weary US awakens to 'soft power'

I chose to post this here and not in the BAN forum because I think it belongs here.

I'll post a quick quote & Link...

news.yahoo.com...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - After six hard years of war, the United States is awakening to the idea that "soft power" is a better way to regain influence and clout in a world bubbling with instability.
And nowhere is the change in thinking more advanced than in the US military, which is pushing for greater diplomacy, economic aid, civic action and civilian capabilities to prevent new wars and win the peace in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's going to wind up that we'll just let the civil factions kill each other off until there's one strong tribe to deal with and then we just annhialate (sic) the one that's left. (Rhetorically speaking, of course).

For whatever reason, I'm glad it's being considered. Our boy and girls need a break. From whatever you may call our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Comments?
Cuhail

[edit on 12/13/2007 by Cuhail]

Thanks for the link CuHail, Whatever it takes, and if lives can be spared and some sembilance of order restored all the better, and if they do fight each other...Let them get it out of their system and deal with the victors...Maybe a Blackwater type privite company can do the Civic/Ecomonic work, Call it LavenderWater and hire nothing but the best, Ya know like a few 100 birkenstock wearing Kumbaya singers, and a few 100 Harvard business school grads can get together build schools, promote business, etc, kinda like a high paying Peace Corps job...(Kick-back expected if idea used)...

I liked this part quoted to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates:

news.yahoo.com...

Gates pointed to the huge disparity between the Pentagon's half trillion dollar budget and the State Department's 37 billion dollars.
Its 6,600 diplomats amount to the crew of a single US aircraft carrier, he said.

The US Agency for International Development has been slashed from 15,000 to 3,000 people, and the US Information Agency was dismantled, he said.

Underfunded and undermanned, US civilian agencies have not kept up with the demand for experts in war zones, leading to bitter complaints from US military officers that they have been left holding the bag.

That's the kicker in my book!

Cuhail

I'm bumping this up because I think it's relevant (That's why I posted it) to the quagmire that is the War on Terror. I'm dying to hear some imput from my fellow ATSers on a "Soft War" concept.
Pitch in, huh?
Cuhail

reply to post by Cuhail



I hate to say it, but this could just be false hope. The lull before the storm so to speak, even if the lull manages to last a year or two. I think enforcing "no-fly" zones was a "soft-war" tactic too.