Applied Smart Power by a SEAL

[J. Robert DuBois]

Firn,

I support your assertion that we can defeat many ills with one well-placed investment. In fact, I've lifted the below suggestion from the April piece from my "Applied Smart Power" blog, http://conflictincontext.wordpress.com/ and the April article is: http://conflictincontext.wordpress.com/tag/iraq/ It speaks to the holistic problem - and holistic solution - facing us in OIF and OEF.

And yes - it's simplistic. I'm not naive, and I know that some of our invested funds would be skimmed. Some would even be diverted to insurgent uses...but doing something in this direction, and reaping the rewards, makes it worth the cost:

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“I won’t make my wife a prostitute.”

The man quoted is one of thousands of unemployed Iraqi men, living in pathetic conditions through no fault of his own. He needs work, because his family needs food. His options are simple: 1) acquire gainful employment; 2) put his wife to work on her back with no other marketable skills; 3) emplace an improvised explosive device by the side of a road to earn the freelance insurgent “supporter” rate of $150 – and thus feed his family for a month.

On point 1, where there is nearly 30% unemployment (70% in some areas, and 80% for women), he has no opportunities. On point 2, he has taken a stand. Point 3, then, is the only avenue remaining. When our soldier is struck by that IED, what will our response be? Appropriately, we will capture or kill this now-valid “target”, this pitiful actor at the end of his rope, this family’s only possible breadwinner…greatly worsening the lot of a woman and children already in desperate need.

The neighbors won’t fail to notice how this plays out.

For years I have written and spoken about the urgent need for those of us with dominant power to look through the eyes of and engage other populations and individuals as a higher way to reduce the conflict threatening all sides. These struggles will be described in many forms in upcoming Conflict in Context posts, from passive-aggressive hassles around the workplace to taking a much-unwanted knife in the ribs.

Let me offer just one highly preferable alternative to killing the man who puts out a bomb to kill an American to earn $150 to give his daughter some food: let’s give him $300. That’s right; let’s double his income, giving him a one-time, good-deal payout of $300 to care for his family as he chooses.

Next month, let’s offer him the same $300 – only this time, let’s attach a string: he has to sit through vocational rehabilitation classes to learn a trade like electrical work. Heaven knows, this country is in desperate need of qualified electricians to begin patching together a safe and reliable infrastructure!

The third month, let’s attach another string to his $300: let’s make him accompany an electrician as an apprentice, reinforcing the lessons he learned in class.

His fourth month, and every month afterward, we’ll require him to earn his $300 by working as an instructor-electrician and taking out a new apprentice coming up through the same program.

The fifth month, we split the salary cost 50/50 with the Iraqi government and begin to empower it to take over this domestic responsibility.

Within half a year, the Iraqi government is bearing the entire cost of these salaries in exchange for greatly-improved public power distribution and a huge reduction in injuries caused by faulty wiring. No American soldier was killed by the men in this program, because they receive twice the income for a much safer avocation and discover self-respect. No wife is pimped, no child is hungry, and the rebuilding of a society is in full swing.

How do the costs work out? According to conservative estimates, the US government pays more than ten billion dollars a month to run the war in Iraq. If we round down for argument’s sake to nine billion, this rate could pay for thirty million work-study program participants.

There aren’t even thirty million Iraqis in the whole country!

So let’s divert one thousandth of that 9 billion dollars, and we can begin rebuilding the nation with 30,000 men. Or take just one ten-thousandth (0.001%), and start with only 3,000. That’s 3,000 families restored – 3,000 potential bombers eliminated – 3,000 less chances for our soldier to be torn apart. Imagine where this might take us.

Where would we find less than a million dollars to spare? Well, you can start by cutting out the Baskin-Robbins cart here at my dining facility. It is a war, after all. My comrades and I will find some way to bravely carry on without it.

Real, unlimited solutions in the unlimited world of conflict are within reach, if we are willing to use imagination, daring, and the vast reservoir of experience held by security professionals who refuse to step into the box.