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Posted on 06/05/2002 8:42:14 PM PDT by LarryLied
WASHINGTON - The administration of President George W Bush has decided to close the US Army's Peacekeeping Institute (PKI), the only US government agency of its kind, say Pentagon officials. The decision comes less than a month after Washington withdrew from the treaty to establish an International Criminal Court (ICC).
The PKI closure has not yet been formally announced. Officials said that the institute's functions would be reallocated to the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. "How that transition will take place has yet to be worked out," said a PKI official at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, about 150 kilometers north of the US capital.
The PKI's dissolution is being described as part of an army reorganization made necessary by new budget allocations decreed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A number of knowledgeable individuals inside and outside the Pentagon dismissed that explanation, noting that Rumsfeld and his top civilian aides have long been hostile to US participation in peacekeeping.
"They're saying it's just a coincidence, but everyone knows that the PKI's budget is next to nothing and that abolishing it is another message from the boys at the top," said one military source who asked not to be identified.
The PKI, founded as the Cold War began to fade into memory in 1993, has a staff of 10 and an annual budget of US$200,000.
"This isn't about saving money," said Peter Gantz, project manager for United Nations peace operations at the World Federalist Association (WFA), which has worked closely with the uniformed military on peacekeeping. "This is drawing a line in the sand. The Bush administration is saying it wants the US out of peacekeeping in every way, shape or form," he added.
Robert Perito, a peacekeeping expert with the US Institute of Peace (USIP), a quasi-governmental think-tank, also regretted the decision to kill the PKI both because of how its closure will be interpreted abroad and at the UN and because of the institute's specific work.
"This sends a powerful signal," said Perito, who has overseen peace operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, East Timor, and Kosovo. "The US has been criticized recently by a variety of sources about our unwillingness to take part in peace operations, so this only seems to substantiate that criticism."
As well as studying lessons learned in peace operations - it was created three months before the US peacekeeping debacle in Somalia that became the subject of the recent Hollywood blockbuster Blackhawk Down - the PKI also promoted US Army exchanges with international organizations, such as the UN, involved in peace operations. In addition, it hosted an annual meeting where all government offices involved in peacekeeping reviewed key developments and challenges in the field.
"This leaves a tremendous void in our ability to respond effectively to challenges that we will face in the years ahead," said Mike Dziedzic, a retired air force colonel who teaches at the National War College and worked as a strategic military planner with the UN mission in Kosovo. "The PKI's focus was directly relevant to the real security challenges, such as Afghanistan, the poster-child of failed states," said Dziedzic, now a senior fellow at USIP. "If we are successful in removing from power the leadership of the 'axis of evil', as in Afghanistan, we will still have to do something about creating good governance in those places, and that starts with peace operations."
During his presidential campaign, Bush said that he opposed US participation in peacekeeping because it reduced military readiness and morale. He thus echoed the initial skepticism of much of the uniformed military 10 years ago, when then president Bill Clinton pledged US troops to some peace operations.
This skepticism turned to support by the end of the 1990s as the military acquired more experience. Last March, the World Peace Through Law Education Fund concluded, on the basis of interviews with more than two dozen top US military leaders: "Most senior commanders believe that the US doesn't have to lead every operation but it has to be a player, and, to be most effective, must be a player on the ground." Among those interviewed was the commander of US operations in Afghanistan, army General Tommy Franks.
"The training that the young [non-commissioned officer] or younger officer gets [in Kosovo] is far superior to what he or she would be getting if they were [stationed at US bases] in Germany," said retired General Joseph Ralston, a former North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commander
These conclusions have been rejected or ignored by Pentagon chief Rumsfeld, who favors a gradual withdrawal of US troops from peacekeeping duties in the Balkans and the Sinai.
The administration's opposition to participating in peace missions has only increased since the Rome Statute creating the ICC took effect in April. US diplomats at the United Nations reportedly have warned that Washington will not permit US troops to take part in any UN operation and may withdraw US personnel from current operations, notably East Timor, unless it receives guarantees that its nationals will not be subject to the ICC's jurisdiction.
The decision to abolish the PKI will not only reinforce international - and especially European - condemnation of US unilateralism, says Eric Schwartz, who dealt with peacekeeping as a senior staff member of the National Security Council under Clinton, but will discourage US military officers from working in this area.
In the absence of institutional recognition of the importance of peacekeeping, said Schwartz, now with USIP, it will not attract the most capable and most effective officers.
Added Dziedzic, "No one is going to line up with us unless we do it too."
I'm beginning to respect Bush again.
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Hey! all my fellow Freepers, lets break ranks and see if we can't gain control of the House and Senate and give our President a chance with the control of Congress he deserves. Things would be much different if it wasn't for Daschle's back room bribery of Jim Jeffords. We are bigger than all this back biting.
On the contrary, the exact opposite is true.
It's clear the people who count know. By that I mean, the officer corps and the international community. Issues like this become known if the liberal/socialist press or Democrats decide to make an issue out of them. However, I'm very glad you found and posted this. It is such an important marker that our military policy is on the right track.
I like it!
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