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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/
10/04/AR2008100402033.html?hpid=moreheadlines
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The U.S. army has released a new version of its Field Manual for Stability Operations. The announcement in the Washington Post:
The Army on Monday will unveil an unprecedented doctrine that declares nation-building missions will probably become more important than conventional warfare and defines "fragile states" that breed crime, terrorism and religious and ethnic strife as the greatest threat to U.S. national security.
All countries have crime, terrorism and religious or ethnic strife of one kind or another. So what states are fragile? Look at the first sentence of the introduction to the field manual:
Today, the Nation remains engaged in an era of persistent conflict against enemies intent on limiting American access and influence throughout the world.
Have we sunk so low that any country "intent on limiting American access and influence throughout the world" is now an enemy? What about individuals? I am damned intent on limiting the evil empire's reach and influence around the world
The Army is seeking to justify "intervention" in form of "stability operations" under the pretense of "instability" whenever and wherever it wants to intervene.
Perpetual intervention for perpetual peace in a slight deviation from the old formula.
Also included was this:
"This is the document that bridges from conflict to peace," said Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where the manual was drafted over the past 10 months. The U.S. military "will never secure the peace until we can conduct stability operations in a collaborative manner" with civilian government and private entities at home and abroad, he said.
At home! Did Glenn not do a recent post on this?
