Will US Army's Development Delusions Cause More Deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The new 2009 US Aarmy Stability Operations Field Manual (available in a University of Michigan paperback as well as an earlier version online ) is remarkably full of utopian dreams of transforming other societies into oases of prosperity, peace, and democracy through the coordinated use of military force, foreign aid, and expert knowledge.

I usually ridicule such documents. But my wells of satire are starting to run dry after years of deployment against utopians like Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Collier. More in sorrow than in anger, I see that the utopian social engineering craze might affect actions of people with guns. I am sad for Iraqis and Afghans that the U.S. Army is operating in their countries guided by such misguided ideas.

To document a little of what seems utopian, the foreword by Lieutentant General William B. Caldwell IV, Commander, US Army Combined Arms Center, says:

we will ...defeat insurgency, assist fragile states, and provide vital humanitarian aid to the suffering. .... to promote participation in government, spur economic development, and address the root causes of conflict among the disenfranchised populations of the world....{with} a comprehensive approach to stability operations that integrates the tools of statecraft with our military forces, international partners, humanitarian organizations, and the private sector.

The Manual, with a foreword by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy, says the US Army will be

leveraging the coercive...force to establish a safe and secure environment; ...establish political, legal, social, and ....economic institutions; and help transition responsibility to a legitimate civil authority {my emphasis} operating under the rule of law.... toward long-term developmental activities where military forces support broader efforts

The definition of a legitmate civil authority is then given:

Respects freedom of religion, conscience, speech, assembly, association, and press. Submits to the will of the people, especially when people vote to change their government. Maintains order within its own borders, protects independent and impartial systems of justice, punishes crime, embraces the rule of law, and resists corruption. Protects the institutions of civil society, including the family, religious communities, voluntary associations, private property, independent businesses, and a market economy.

Who is going to do all this? The US Army is going to be assisted by other US government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, international and region organizations and the private sector, i.e people who have different approaches, different objectives, different incentives, and answer to different bosses, with no credible mechanism for coordination (the Manual suggests a "Civil-Military Operations Center")

The danger is that, if put into practice, such delusions create excessive ambition, which creates excessive use of military force, which kills real human beings, Afghans and Iraqis and our own soldiers.

US Army and Defense Department thinkers - please go back to the drawing board. Think about American values that guide us at home. These values don't include utopian social engineering, and certainly not by outside armies.

Comments

[Gidster]

You will all be Democracies, or else we will destroy you!!!!!

Sounds like the lame super villain justification for detonating a nuke in central park!

[DasBoot]

The U.S. has been trying this since the war in the Philippines in the early 20th century. For some reason there is no learning curve. Well, the reason is that this kind of idiocy employs thousands of social scientists in universities, think tanks, etc. and can get billions of dollars out of congress for the military-i­ndustrial-­intellectu­al complex.

[liecatcher]

Hey William Easterly:

You left out the pre-condition that before we can democratize a country, it must have either minerals,oil,

drugs, or cheap labor.

[Marnie1]

I didn't get very far
...defeat insurgency,.. OUtside military forces have a poor history of defeating freedom fighters, which is waht insurgents are.

"...and provide vital humanitarian aid to the suffering. .... "
We've killed as many as a million Iraqis, made over 4 million refugees, and destroyed their infrastructure. And we are doing the same in Afganistan and are starting up in Pakistan.

How, exactly, does that "aid to the suffering."

Surely there's a typo and the manual means "add to the suffering."

[DasBoot]

You get it all wrong. In order to save the village, we have to first destroy it. As Marx said, history comes first as tragedy, then as farce...

[LindaCat]

Iraq is a money stealing scam justified solely and entirely by lies. Much like Vietnam only more sophisticated. This rubbish only provides camouflage for the US Citizens who are paying for it all with blood and resource.
Expect more of the same, destroying civilizations and killing people under the guise of spreading truth, justice and the American way but in reality profiteering is all that is driving these expeditions.
Ain't Imperialism great?

[research]

Bringing the Military industrial complex to the world.

[thebigbike]

Gosh it sure sounds like it was put together by an image conscious corporate mission statement consultancy group ( but aiming for what audience?). Did it leave out any "management" buzzwords?

[GardenerNorCal]

Doesn't it just? Love how they squeezed in protecting a market economy.

[eciaccio]

But, but, but... as the shining "city on the hill", the "beacon of democracy" to the world, aren't we obliged to create such utopias all over the globe? Isn't that why we have more than 800 military bases in 130 foreign countries?