Article: Iraqi Reconstruction

An article in today's WSJ Opinion Journal summarizes (with tons of links) a roundup of some rare good news on the Iraqi reconstruction front.
With reporting and rhetoric all-too-often focused on the negative slant, its important to remember, we are saving infinitely more lives than have been lost since our arrival and building relationships, friendships and bonds with thousands of Iraq communities and individuals every day. What a monumental disgrace it would be if we let the purveyors of negativity convince us that we cannot succeed in this bold endeavor and turned our backs on all of these worthy deeds...and all because of state-side partisanship turning a cowardly "insurgency" and strategically insignificant Coalition losses into a pervasive defeatist attitude on the home front.Context is so very important when discussing this conflict. The author, a well-known blogger Arthur Chernkoff, reminds us that we're not rebuilding an Iraq destroyed by our invasion, nor by even the twelve years of sanctions, nor even the eight years of war with Iran before that. No, we are rebuilding an Iraq neglected under Bathist rule for the past thirty years! America had a period called "Reconstruction" in our history as well. If you know your history, it took more than just a year to rehabilitate the South. It could be argued in fact, that it took decades - generations.

Naval Reserve Getting it Right

"Altruism" and "military service" don't oft collide in the same sentence, I know, but I've found so many people that would like to help make a difference in the world but have never considered the military as an avenue for such pursuits. There is a pervasive ignorance about the multitude of humanitarian, civil-administrative roles available within the Armed Services. Given the target demographic of military recruitment advertising, and its requisite tone and message, this is no surprise. After all, traditionally, the civil administrative roles have been an afterthought - tucked away under Special Ops Command and given virtually no public visibility. This has to change - an is changing.
Just last week, at the terminal in O'Hare, I saw a Naval Reserve recruiting poster that featured a photo of a middle-aged soldier with a crowd of Afghani children around him with the tag line: "Build Bridges in the Navy". I thought to myself, "Yes! Someone at the Navy gets it."

I couldn't find that specific poster, but I did find this one:
http://www.navalreserve.com/includes/contact_us/nps_brochure.pdf
(links to pdf)

Now, if we could just get the Army to catch on...
As a recent subject (victim?) of the U.S. Army's recruitment process, I've developed a concern for the military's ability to compete with the private sector to attract and recruit the quality of individual that will be needed to make a real difference in the inevitable nation-building efforts we face in the coming century.
They know how to pull in aimless 18 yr. olds and there are avenues like campus ROTC programs to attract intelligent but inexperienced 22 yr. olds but I can safely say that unless one has the internal motivation, they would find the recruitment process more likely to drive them away - particularly if one's motivations where of a more altruistic nature.
The Naval Reserve's new campaign is a definite move in the right direction for force-transformation, but to belabor the nautical analogy, it takes a long time to turn an aircraft carrier around.