Quote Originally Posted by MikeF View Post
One trend that is observed in developing countries with protracted insurgencies is the standardized use of the military to police. In those cases, the military is not the "capacity reserve," but the main effort.

As some of the lessons of Colombia show us, maybe we should start increasing our efforts to assist and advice towards mentoring police and judicial reform instead of further strengthening the military apparatus.

This notion goes against the current belief that we should secure and stabilize first through the military.
It is a primarily US (but secondarily most major or former major powers) approach engendered not by logic but by arcane and inappropriate budget processes which equate jobs/tasks/missions with money and thus encourage the rather more organized armed forces to seek all missions to the detriment of those who should be tasked...

It's sort of like the Schools -- do not build the capacity of your students by developing capability and insisting upon performance; rather, throw more money at the Administrators, Teachers and Facilities. Mostly because the former receive power and emoluments through enhancing the latter two...