vox
19th June 2002, 00:29
Army Peacekeeping Institute Sent Packing
Don't Peace Operations Have A Place At The Pentagon?
As relief and human rights groups warn that much of Afghanistan is falling into chaos due to the lack of security, the Pentagon has decided to close the United States Army's Peacekeeping Institute (PKI) -- the only government agency devoted to studying how to secure peace in failed nations or post-conflict situations.
The agency analyzes past peace operations and passes the results on to the hundreds of American military officers from all the agencies of the armed forces who attended its seminars and courses. The institute also informs U.N. officials, officers and civilians from other nations who participate in peace operations of its findings.
While the shut-down, set for September 2003, has not yet been formally announced, Pentagon officials said some of the institute's functions will be reallocated to the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They said the dissolution was part of the Army's reorganization under new budgetary allocations decreed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
But knowledgeable sources rejected that explanation, stressing that Rumsfeld and his top civilian aides have long been hostile to U.S. participation in peacekeeping. Condoleezza Rice exemplified the contempt for peacekeeping held by many Republicans when she said during Bush’s presidential campaign, “We don’t need to have the Eighty-Second Airborne escorting kids to kindergarten.”
Full Article (http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5799)
Unbelievable, but then, nothing that comes from this administration should be surprising. The FBI and CIA say that the bombing of Afghanistan most likely increased the terrorist threat, and now this, because, of course, if they get out of hand we'll just kill more civilians, right?
vox
Don't Peace Operations Have A Place At The Pentagon?
As relief and human rights groups warn that much of Afghanistan is falling into chaos due to the lack of security, the Pentagon has decided to close the United States Army's Peacekeeping Institute (PKI) -- the only government agency devoted to studying how to secure peace in failed nations or post-conflict situations.
The agency analyzes past peace operations and passes the results on to the hundreds of American military officers from all the agencies of the armed forces who attended its seminars and courses. The institute also informs U.N. officials, officers and civilians from other nations who participate in peace operations of its findings.
While the shut-down, set for September 2003, has not yet been formally announced, Pentagon officials said some of the institute's functions will be reallocated to the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They said the dissolution was part of the Army's reorganization under new budgetary allocations decreed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
But knowledgeable sources rejected that explanation, stressing that Rumsfeld and his top civilian aides have long been hostile to U.S. participation in peacekeeping. Condoleezza Rice exemplified the contempt for peacekeeping held by many Republicans when she said during Bush’s presidential campaign, “We don’t need to have the Eighty-Second Airborne escorting kids to kindergarten.”
Full Article (http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5799)
Unbelievable, but then, nothing that comes from this administration should be surprising. The FBI and CIA say that the bombing of Afghanistan most likely increased the terrorist threat, and now this, because, of course, if they get out of hand we'll just kill more civilians, right?
vox