On Tue, 5 Dec 2000, Max Sawicky wrote:
> My impression is that these two are moderates re: interventionism.
> CP followed orders once the decision was made, but the scuttlebutt was
> that he was more reluctant to intervene. If he is Secy of State, it
> is hard to imagine little Georgie running over him to invade some
> far-off land. But I guess we'll find out.
As I understand it, Colin Powell's big contribution to military doctrine is the elevation of "force protection" and "exit strategy" -- I.e., don't do anything if someone might get hurt or things might get messy. He seems to have the risk-averse worldview of a desk general. Let's hope he keeps it. When Rice laid out her ideas in the Jan/Feb 2000 Foreign Affairs, the principles sounded different than Clinton's, but the details were exactly the same as the last 20 years, with the one striking example of China and Japan. The Republican right really harps on the fact that Clinton visited China and didn't stop off in Japan on the way home and she incorporated that view verbatim. They and she seem to see that part of the world more in terms of a cordon sanitaire around China than as a business opportunity. This a tiny bit scary when contemplated in regard to present day Taiwan.
I get the impression when it comes to intervention in the coming years that mercenaries will be playing a bigger and bigger role. When the FT did a break-down of the $1.3 billion heading to Columbia, the two companies listed as the biggest beneficiaries were Professional Resources, Inc. and Dyncorp in Virginia, both professional mercenaries. While it's not new for the CIA to hire mercenaries, I don't remember that it used to be a visible on-budget expense like this. Besides taking privitization to a new frontier, it seems to solve the twin problems of force protection and exitability. Perhaps we've finally decided to buy a real imperial army to go with our empire, like the Ghurkas or the Foreign Legion.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com