Posted on 05/26/2006 6:37:23 PM PDT by SandRat
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany, May 26, 2006 – Twenty-nine nations of the trans-Atlantic community took a first step toward hammering out an understanding of when and how to use military forces to secure the homeland during a conference held here May 22-24.
More than 100 national representatives, speakers, observers and organizers met near the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies for the Euro-Atlantic Perspectives on the Role of Military Forces in Homeland Security conference. The event was organized by the Marshall Center in cooperation with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.
The common understanding participants strove for is the first step toward making all nations safer, said conference moderator Jack Clarke.
"We're trying to build a trans-Atlantic community of expertise in homeland defense, and this is a start," Clarke said. "We're trying to understand how different countries employ military forces in dealing with domestic emergencies and domestic contingencies. This is an opportunity for both sides of the Atlantic to learn from one another."
To that end, participants heard speakers and panel members explore the European and U.S. traditions, as well as those of the former Soviet states in attendance. Understanding those diverse backgrounds is important because a unified community of nations is something terrorists and others actively target, Clarke said.
"All of us have come to realize that security is all too divisible in the world we live in today," he said. "By that I mean terrorists and others understand that they can make people think they can be more secure when they do not join in alliances. We want to ensure that security remains indivisible, and therefore we work together for the same kinds of cooperative security goals."
Even discussing the same subject with participants from countries ranging from the United States to Estonia and Georgia brings is a challenge, Clarke said.
"Sure, 30 different nations can be a management challenge, but I think this has worked really, really well, because ... regardless of where they're from, they're all in the same business.
"Granted, not all of them get a chance to talk and tell us how they do it in their country, but that's not really the goal. The goal is that you get exposed to different ideas and you take them back, and you try to integrate them as appropriate to your planning process, or your strategic concept," he said.
Different ideas were not in short supply, Clarke added.
"I would say that one of the biggest differences is that some countries in Europe have specialized forces to deal with a lot of these kinds of issues, and others don't. Countries like France and Italy and Spain have what we call paramilitary police forces, like the gendarmerie. They're particularly well-suited to dealing with a broad range of homeland security and homeland defense tasks.
"In the United States, we have the National Guard," he continued. "That's a completely different kind of organization that doesn't exist anywhere in Europe, where the state governor has control of his own military forces."
With all those differences in mind, conference organizers and speakers asked participants to look to the future and contemplate homeland security challenges their nations might face.
"We've looked at things like, what's the role of the military in managing bird flu?" Clarke said. "How would the military respond to a dirty bomb attack? We've also looked at the different kinds of ... strategic approaches. We heard from the British about their resiliency strategy, and then we compared that to the homeland security strategy of the United States and found a lot of areas of commonality, but found some important differences."
Studying the different approaches is important because the threats nations face have become global, said Peter F. Verga, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.
"Transnational flows aid the acceleration of disease transmission, terrorism, proliferation of advanced weapons and weapons of mass destruction materials and extremist ideologies," Verga said.
"All free nations - including their citizens, territory and infrastructure - are vulnerable to these threats. These challenges, in both the security environment and the diluted concept of sovereignty, argue for identifying new ways of cooperating with our allies and partners," he said.
Participants found those new ways by sharing examples and ideas, bringing forth a new understanding, Clarke said.
"Definitions are clearly important, but a conference like this makes it clear to the participants that, regardless of what definitions you use, we're doing the same kinds of things. And that's a particularly important aspect of the conference, is that at the end of the day people can say, 'Hey, they may call it homeland security and we may call it internal security, but ... it's the same thing,'" Clarke explained.
Bill Bann, another representative from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense, told participants that reaching the state of a common understanding is the beginning of greater security for all.
"I would recommend to you that you build on the knowledge that you gained here, maintain the contacts that we've made ... so that we don't just leave this here, that we build upon this," he said. "I think it makes us stronger as a nation, and as an international community, to face these very difficult and tough challenges that are before us."
(Joe Ferrare works at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.)
bttt
Just makes you all mnisty eyed, doesn't it...
Which is why these 5 traitors should be accorded removal priority. We need to find out who their most competitive opponents are and start supporting them with donations big time and early.
THANKS. Much appreciated.
Black humor . . . I guess, is sometimes what humor we have left in some situations.
Wish I could be more light-heartedly humorous more often.
Kind comments are water in a dry land.
Have a blessed holiday.
Interesting.
I've become increasingly convinced that all the rumors about detention/death camps will turn out to essentially be true.
I mean, just taking Biblical prophecy--the basic outline--and looking at similar themes over the last several decades in the news and geopolitics . . .
It is LOGICAL that the world ruler, his ruling elite would set up such camps. Given their goals, they'd be fools not to. I've often thought that Nazi Germany, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot et al were merely dry run practice sessions for the grand evils just ahead.
I'm glad my Redeemer Lives; that He conquered death, hell and the grave; and the He has promised to ever be with me and to make me more fully with Him on graduation from this boot camp.
Yuck. I sure wasn't very discerning about her, I guess.
RATS. I hate such revelations and facts. I thought she was one of the good ones. She probably IS still better than any of the DIMRATS running but, sheesh, to be that on board with the globalist plans is really yucky.
Political correctness was rampant in my PhD program 30 odd years ago.
A discerning person could have detected it even in my BA program 1965-1969.
And, of course, the early seeds were present in The Garden of Eden when satan said . . . God didn't REALLY say that, He meant . . . "
Revisionism has long been a major tool of the father of lies.
Sickening, isn't it.
I'd say "God have mercy on their souls." But sometimes, methinks even God is not interested in giving such folks mercy.
Sometimes that book "The Beautiful Face of Evil" is far too true for comfort.
Whitewashed tombs they are, indeed.
Great service you did to list such hideousness.
Thanks.
"Let there be peeeeace on earth, and let it begin with meeeeeeeeee...." (sway, repeat, sway, repeat)
[barf, gag, hurl]
- - - --
Great song with a great truth when we are talking about Christ's authentic peace that passes understanding.
But with the evil doers co-opting it, counterfitting it with shallow surface whitewash with which to dupe the masses into Machiavellian slavery and death . . .
barf, gag, retch and hurl indeed.
What a kind and thoughtful comment.
You sound more like a dear to live with instead of . . . your screen name! LOL.
Thanks.
We can only pray that they see the Light. Because if they are indeed 'whitewashed tombs' and have not Him in their hearts, the souls will be damned for eternity. And we would not wish that upon any human being....not while the "prayers of a righteous man" are still heard by God.
Quix, do you know anything about the organ harvesting and death camp at Sujiatun? (the prisoners are mostly Falun Gong and political dissidents) The article I recently read about it in "The Epoch Times" (April, 2006) is quite an "eye opener", if true.
True. True.
Though the Chinese take great pains to give a lofty name for their children to live up to.
We can only pray that they see the Light. Because if they are indeed 'whitewashed tombs' and have not Him in their hearts, the souls will be damned for eternity. And we would not wish that upon any human being....not while the "prayers of a righteous man" are still heard by God.
- - - -
True. Though I have felt a very uncommon thing re Shrillery. I have not had that much peace about praying for her soul. It feels as though she has very stubbornly and deliberately chosen to reject God at a very deep level and very fiercely.
But, yeah. I would not wish hell on even her or anyone else.
The mini 'hells' of this boot camp can be more than traumatic enough.
Only what I've read hereon.
I know that the Party is scared spitless that the Falun Gong group could marshal so many in a peaceful demonstration. Any mass movement of citizens by any group or authority other than the CCP causes the leaders to break out in terrrified hives. Tienanment really did shock them to their bone marrow.
I would not really doubt the organ sale stuff given the rampant corruption and the nihlistic view of so many CCP leaders.
Stay tuned . . . it's all likely coming to a neighborhood near you courtesy of the globalist puppet masters.
lol!
I know exactly how you feel, and have to fight with that myself.
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