Originally Posted by shek

Parihaka,

I don't think that the authors are arguing that we need to shut out State and USAID. I think that they are merely stating the reality of OIF circa 2003, 2004, 2005, etc. State and USAID have not been fully effective because of the security situation, and if we wait until the security situation is sufficient for a large scale deployment of State and USAID, then we will be exactly where we are today in future nation building expeditions.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with LTC Nagl, but he turned his PhD thesis into a very popular book that looks at the British successes in Malaya vs. the lack of American success in Vietnam from an organizational culture perspective. One of the major lessons learned from Malaya was that you need unity of command under civilian leadership - given this and the reality of OIF - I highly doubt that the intent of the passage you quoted was meant as a usurpation of civilian agencies, but rather developing an interim capability until you can get State/USAID/NGOs fully in the "fight" to win the populace.

Lastly, you may be interested in the new website, http://www.usgcoin.org/, which is an interagency initiative driven by LTG Petraeus and Assistant Secretary Hillen. This is an ongoing effort between DoD and State to bring State "onto the team" so that all elements of national power are moving in the same direction with the same effort. i am sure that the recent changes at DoD will improve and hopefully energize this effort.