UnUnified InAction

There are numerous armchair generals and diplomats among bloggers, and precious few reporters with military or diplomatic expertise in an era of media shucking foreign bureaus and expertise beyond local news. No wonder that this morning’s Memeorandum is full of snits and snark but no mention of today’s real must read: Max Boot’s New York Times op-ed “Send the State Department to War.”

Max Boot, an exception to ignorance, is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of “War Made New: Weapons, Warriors and the Making of the Modern World.” Boot, also, blogs at Contentions, Commentary’s essential-to-read blog.

Of course, read the whole op-ed. Here’s a taste:

While maintaining military power remains important, even more crucial goals are aiding moderate Muslims, countering enemy propaganda, promoting economic growth, flexing our political and diplomatic muscles to achieve vital objectives peacefully, gathering intelligence, promoting international cooperation, and building the rule of law in ungoverned lands.

The government developed expertise in many of these areas during the cold war, but those skills were lost as budgets were slashed and jobs eliminated during the “peace dividend” decade of the 1990s. Because civilian capacity has been so anemic, an undue burden has fallen on the military — something that soldiers understandably resent….

Modern management theory holds that small, tightly focused organizations are likely to be more effective than large conglomerates that try to do a million different things....

James R. Locher, a former Congressional aide who helped draft the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act that brought greater coordination among the different branches of the military, is now leading a nonpartisan consortium of Washington policy and research groups that is trying to devise legislation to enhance the “unity of effort” among different branches of the government.

Instead of acting with the alacrity of the post-World War II presidency and Congress that reshaped our tools of foreign policy to meet the Cold War, this administration and Congress have been AWOL on organizing for what experts call “unified action.” Six years after 9/11, a former congressional aide is leading the way!

Spurred by Austin Bay’s post about a meeting with former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, (another by Bay here) I wrote about the need here. My friend Mark Safranski followed up with a guest post.

Otherwise, there’s been precious little media or blog attention to “unified action” and charting a course better suited to avoid military involvement abroad and to be more effective if the military is necessary.

Instead we’ve had UnUnified InAction.

This disgrace cuts across the administration, Congress, the major and alternative media. America, its security, economy and place in the world, our troops, the fate of those around the world who wish to avoid oppression, suffer.