Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

■"Pentagon Seeks To Expand Role in Intelligence: Traditional C.I.A. Tasks; Proposal Is Taking Shape as Nation Overhauls Its Spy Operations," by Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 19 December 2004, p. A1.

■"Under Siege in Afghanistan, Aid Groups Say Their Effort Is Being Criticized Unfairly: Afghans say some aid workers appear to be living the high life," by Carlotta Gall and Amy Waldman, New York Times, 19 December 2004, p. A8.

The Pentagon is exploring the messy seam between war and peace, because that's where much of this Global War on Terrorism will be fought, and those serial assassinations will be conducted by the Leviathan's road team, Special Operations Command. These trigger pullers don't have an off-season, because they never leave the playing field. They're there when the Leviathan force pulls into town and they remain when the Leviathan force pulls up stakes.

And they need intelligence.

And if that need means the Pentagon starts acting more like the CIA in obtaining it, well, this is just another blurring of the line between war and peace, or between Leviathan and SysAdmin functions.

The SysAdmin forces will never engage in the sort of serial assassinations that the flies-on-the-eyeballs guys do, because that force can never be tainted by such activity. The SysAdmin's killers will be the Marines, who, with their worldwide reputation for both fierceness and discipline, are the perfect face to put forward in terms of that force's muscle.

Yes, I know, there are plenty of aid groups that don't want to be associated with the U.S. military, but if they're going to have any lasting positive impact in postconflict stabilization ops like Afghanistan, both we the military and they the private aid groups are going to have to forge a new set of understandings and relationships. We need to become the cop and the social worker who walk the same beats.

And another thing: the aid crowd has to start being more cognizant of how they come off to the locals, who often grow angry with the U.S. military but never accuse them of living "high on the hog" as aid workers are consistently accused.

As one aid group director admitted, "A lot of agencies are only here for the money."

The solution? Regularize and codify the process. Separate the good groups from the bad, and get clear lines of demarcation between groups and the military, even as the two sides need to work increasingly together. Systematize it, for crying out loud. Administer it in a comprehensive fashion.

Yeah, that's the ticket . . . system administration!