From todays NYT:
"The officials predicted that the requirement for the “civilian surge” would eventually include hundreds of people with experience in areas that include small-business management, legal affairs, veterinary medicine, public sanitation, counternarcotics efforts and air traffic control.
In addition, officials said, the number of diplomatic positions at the American Embassy in Kabul and at provincial reconstruction outposts could increase by several hundred more. Some officials supplied details of the plan on the condition of anonymity because the decisions were not final.
….
(DOD U/S Flournoy said that ) the government was still “playing a game of catch-up” after years of not setting aside money to create this civilian expertise, and she described the reliance on reservists as part of “a whole host of stopgap measures” necessary until teams of civilian experts could be created."
This fits very closely with what I said in some earlier posts. The diplomacy, Public Diplomacy, refugee coordination, governance jobs, etc, can be filled by DOS. Much of the rest will simply have to come from elsewhere. The reserves are not the best answer, but they have many of the skills. The problem is that the civilian agencies (USDA, DOC, EPA) are neither configured nor functionally capable of compelling people to deploy.
A significant chunk of the specific civilian surge will likely fall to contractors.
Regarding some previous posts:
A couple of thoughts. Steve the Planner makes some great points. As an FSO with gray hair (what little I have of it), I have a good sense of the strengths and limitations of DOS skill sets. There is a definite role for the right FSO, but it seems that, in Iraq, quantity often trumped quality.
As for no thanks for the service or outbrief. I agree. I got neither myself.
RE: "120mm" Based on 2.5 months somewhere in Afghanistan, 120 MM states:
"Gee, I've rolled around in Afghanistan in an unarmored Ford pickup for the last 2.5 months. ANA/ANP make excellent security. And that's in a role where people have a huge self-interest in killing me/us. It's just not that risky, here. But that's my mind-set vs. the typical guy in a tie."
Well, based on my year in Afghanistan, there are DOS people (Helmand, Kandahar, Kunar, Nuristan) where you simply can't drive around in an "unarmored ford." In Helmand, the DOS rep (who has been there for nearly two years) would have been dead a long time back.
Sure, up in Mazar and Kunduz, Bamiyan, Panjshir, you can ride around in the open. Herat as well. Not in the Pech river valley or on the road to Musa Qala.
As to language skills? Do we all have them? No. Right now all except one or two of the DOS people heading out this summer are finishing their 44 week high intensity language course. As for previous DOS people, I won't give her name, but, for one example, we had a Pashto speaker working near the Pak border for over a year. She had specific death threats against her. If she had ridden for "2.5 months" in an unarmored ford pickup, she would be dead as well.
"But I get the impression that State wants to grow their own from fellow Ivy Leaguers and Biff's tennis buddies and is actually frightened by people with real experience."
I've got 24 years as an FSO. I graduated from a California State College. Not many Ivy Leaguers at State. This is a sterotype from 50 years ago, maybe. I'm one of many FSOs with more than one war under my belt. And no, we don't wear ties out at PRTs. Sorry.
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