Pentagon Considers Creating Postwar Peacekeeping Forces

[kskiska]

The Pentagon has begun to look seriously at creating military forces that would be dedicated to peacekeeping and reconstruction after future conflicts, defense officials said.

The idea is to forge deployable brigades or whole divisions out of units of engineers, military police, civil affairs officers and other specialists critical to postwar operations.

The move marks a reversal for the Bush administration, which came into office strongly resistant to peacekeeping missions and intent on trying to get Europeans and other allies to shoulder more of that burden.

It also comes in the face of traditional U.S. Army opposition to the idea of establishing forces focused on peacekeeping. Army officials have argued that combat troops can be used for peacekeeping when necessary and that additional units with recovery-related skills can be cobbled onto combat divisions to meet postwar demands.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8731-2003Nov23.html

[Spazito]

1. Well, well, well, another Clinton idea coming back after Bush...

trashed it. For the Bush cabal to be bringing back the agency they disbanded after Clinton left means they must be VERY desparate and the situation in Iraq is deteriorating rapidly.

[janx]

4. Maybe. But maybe it's just a matter of

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[ninkasi]

10. f course it is...

"The Pentagon has begun to look seriously at creating military forces that would be dedicated to peacekeeping and reconstruction after future conflicts, defense officials said."

And guess which companies will profit the most? Could they be Haliburton, KBR, etc, the ones who are shoveling money into their bank accounts now?

Nah...that would imply corruption and graft, and we know Bush and his cronies would never try to profit from another country's suffering, right?

[Lisa]

11. Bush was openly contemptuous of peacekeepers ...

I remember that from the 2000 debates. People I know who've served in the Canadian Forces during joint exercises have told me that some (not all, I'm glad to say) of the American servicepeople they've met have teased them about some countries' armies doing peacekeeping because they aren't fit for proper fighting.

[saigon68]

12. MEALS ON WHEELS OTHER ASSORTED CIVIC ACTIONS

After they go to Iraq they can be used in the "Homeland".

They can visit old people in nursing homes.

Help take out the trash to the curb for the homebound, read stories to kids at school (like Chimp did in FL 9-11) and help deliver "Meals on Wheels"

What a great idea.

[markses]

2. Hilarious

Truly hilarious. A better example of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped could not be found anywhere the world over.

This is the truly frightening part about bureaucracy that I think the Internet is teaching us. We have become dependent on petty bureaucrats who insert themselves into real power. then, we find out that the bureaucrats are stupid. Maybe this is just a sign of getting older on my part. I find these people who supposedly have responsibility over the nation to be stupid, clueless. Jeez.

[movonne]

3. I don't like the words future conflicts.

[Paschall]

6. Check out the last paragraph, page 2

Such a force could also be used for "small-scale interventions" in Africa.

I also loved the quote from Rummy about the US providing "leadership" in the peacekeeping field. Numerous other nations have far more experience in peacekeeping (Norway, France, and others) and we'd be well advised to ask them for help in training, etc.

[TheLastMohican]

19. Me neither

Sounds like they are planning some sort of a trained colonial army for future conquests. Syria? Iran? North Korea? There has to be many more enemies to plan colonial armies for the future.

[Voltaire99]

5. It's the imperialism, stupid

Our military - this necessary evil - has to be returned to the shadows of our national life rather than thrust into the limelight and given more money to create "peacekeeping forces," a shallow euphemism for occupation forces.

The goal is to invade less, not more. Can Empire be reformed? Will we be able to halt our burgeoning militarism before it destroys us?

[teryang]

7. I think the American East India Corps

...would be a suitable name for this corporate colonial force. It should be chartered by the BFEE and paid for by Bechtel, Halliburton, Chevron, and ExxonMobil.

The Army wasn't the source of resistance to "peace keeping" forces; it was Cheney and Rumsfeldt, the masterminds of this military diaster. Now they are trying to shift the blame for their miserable stupidity on the "traditional Army." Their mendacity knows no limits.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. How many times in the past

have Bu$hCo claimed they weren't into nation building? Just another one of those little lies that Bu$h told everyone before he started his policy of pre-emptive war. Besides isn't this the sort of thing the UN was good at doing? Why not let them do their job and then we don't even have to foot the whole bill? Oh yeah, I forget, then Bu$hCo's friends won't get all those lucrative no bid contracts to bomb, build, rebomb, rebuild that our economy is starting to be based on.

[salin]

9. eg... "NATION BUILDING".... the plural form of words in the story

are an indication that these folks do not see these actions as being over.

SOmehow I don't think rush etal will start screaming about the evils of "NATION BUILDING" one of their earlier anti clinton mantras, any time soon. Too bad their callers, who they have worked into a lather on this issue before, won't hold them accountable for their moral equivocating.

[Cocoa]

13. didn't Rummy recently kill a program for this?

As I recall, it was some kind of peacekeeping studies academy, possibly created by Clinton. Eliminated to free money for missile defense or something.

[RamboLiberal]

16. Yep it's in Carlisle PA - they announced 1/03 they were closing it

Idiots - and we know they were already geared up to go in to Iraq - they didn't think they needed the expertise. Now they're going to keep it open.

The Department of the Army announced today that the U.S. Army Peacekeeping Institute at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. would be re-established and transformed to fully address all aspects of the stability and support operations the Army conducts.

The institute will be renamed the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) to encompass the revised charter.

The original PKI charter and structure are being adjusted to meet the future needs of the U.S. Army and the U.S. military across a broad range of peacekeeping and stability operations. Current planning calls for the new organization to have 13 Army positions and a distinguished visiting professor. The PKSOI will have an operating budget of between $1.3 to 1.5 million.

<snip>

The decision to retain the capabilities of the PKI and transform the institute into the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute reverses a closure decision announced in January 2003 as part of the Army headquarters realignment study.

http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=5355

[annagull]

17. yet another PollyAnna Neo Con 180

So we'll be needing that peacekeeping institute after all. Just change the name, see?

[Ernesto]

14. Post war peace keeping forces

Oh yeah out of our humanistic democracy building hearts AKA imperialistic occupation forces. These neo con fools are trying to cut their losses on a failed policy. These assholes slipped in here because we (normal humanity) were just not prepared to even believe that such depraved creatures lived amongst our population.

[SharonAnn]

15. But, But, that would be "Nation Building" and Bush doesn't do that

Does he?

[leftofthedial]

18. when you plan to conquer the world

you need garrison troops.