Employment Generation in Stability Ops

[marct]

Hi Goesh

805M out of 20B is a poor ratio - deduct Admin costs from that 805 and there isn't much seed money to be had. Factor in corruption and the number shrinks further.

Especially if it is "administered" in a "we'l tell you what to do" fashion . Again, the micro-loan programs are probably amongst the best models for doing this at a grassroots level.

It would be virgin territory for the Military to manage some of the small business start-ups in Iraq but COIN as I see it is essentially an armed peace corps so I don't see why there couldn't be a pilot project to see how it would fly. Income generating projects/CCC type work could be managed at the small unit level. Oversight/Admin would be direct, on-site, not farmed out from the green zone through layers of intermediaries which significantly ups cost effectiveness and corruption.

Well, I'm not to sure how well the military would do in this role, but almost anything is better than 20 layers of government bureaucrats. Certainly, anything in the civil engineering area would probably be much better admnistered.

Create gainful employment and you create partners, trust, good relationships and ultimately improved security.

I think that I'll have to both agree and disagree with this. I would tend to view it more as a risk reduction exercise, i.e. less unemployed, PO's people than otherwise, therefore more security. Would they become friends and partners? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Marc