GovernmentExecutive.com

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday sent a bill to the Senate that would strengthen the U.S. government's international reconstruction capabilities.

The bill (S. 613), the Reconstruction and Stabilization Civilian Management Act, was passed by unanimous voice vote. It answers the president's call in his State of the Union address for a civilian reserve corps to assist in post-conflict situations to ease the burden on the armed forces' role in reconstruction and stabilization.

The bill was sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., who introduced a similar bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but stalled in the House.

"Our committee's focus has been on boosting the civilian side of our stabilization and reconstruction capabilities, while encouraging improved mechanisms for civilian and military agencies to work together on these missions," Lugar said when he introduced the bill in February. "Those who were once unconvinced of the need for such a corps have only to look at our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan to understand its value."

The act authorizes the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Research within the State Department that will organize and recruit for the new Response Readiness Corps. The corps will be made up of 250 active-duty personnel and 2,000 standby personnel, with most employees coming from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The bill also contains language that calls for 10 percent of State Department and USAID employees to be members of the corps within three years. There would also be a 500-member civilian corps of private sector experts and consultants. The bill authorizes $80 million for fiscal 2008 and each fiscal year after that, along with a $75 million crisis response fund for each fiscal year.

"If we cannot plan better as a government, the United States may come to depend even more on our military for tasks and functions far beyond its current role," Lugar said.

COMMENTS

• Why do they think they can start at the end and not at the beginning? I have done four of these " Train and Advise the Police Assignments", Two with the United Nations (Bosnia & East Timor)and two contracted through INL for the Coalition in Iraq. Every time the mission goal focused on setting up and training as quickly as possible police recruits in the basic western style skills and getting large numbers out there quickly. At the JIPTC in Jordan, we trained Iraqi Police to a reasonable level of skill. In my tour as an Iraqi Police Advisor (IPLO)with an American Military team in Iraq I saw the results of our earlier efforts. It revealed just how little effect the training plan had on standing up the Iraqi Police Forces. The Iraqi Police defended their police compounds but did NOT do any police work. We attempted to help the police establish operational objectives and rule of law procedures but I kept running into the same major problem. Many of the Iraqi Police Chiefs (generals), were former Iraqi Army with no police training or interest in performing police duties. They maintained tight control as under the Hussein era. Mid level Iraqi Police Officers only act at the specific direction of the chief which was seldom forthcomming. There is very little if any police initiative and none from the individual policemen. My military team (USAR) had no police experience and strict orders to comply with a list of mission objectives which again did not account for or apply to the actual situation in the Iraqi police stations. I am sure these military objectives were written by the most educated law enforcement experts in America but they obviously had no idea what existed in the culture, laws, court system,or conditions inside the Iraqi Police. My point with all of this is that the cultural and political obsticles never get the necessary considerations to achieve the desired outcome. No amount of Iraqi Police can do just service to the country if they are not directed by competent motivated leaders. I know that selecting and training good leaders is difficult and politically sensitive, so is establishing a justice system but you can't exclude them and expect much success by simply training police at the bottom. Marion Andrews Posted August 10, 2007 2:57 PM