Keeping the peace
: The other night on 60 Minutes II, I was surprised and impressed watching a military man administering a town in Iraq, meeting with the local leaders, explaining what was happening. He was town hall, the cops, the courts, and the newspaper all wrapped up in a guy with a buzz cut. I thought these guys were just trained to shoot guns. But as was quite clear from watching at least this guy, they are also trained to keep the peace.
And that’s the point Gen. Wesley Clark makes in a piece in the Times of London:
The best peacekeeper is a good soldier. We have proved this again and again, everywhere from Sinai and Lebanon to the Balkans. And now we are moving to peace operations in Iraq….
Many US and British soldiers now consider peace operations familiar ground. Manning checkpoints, conducting patrols, settling civil disturbances without excessive violence, guarding key facilities, supporting civil and political activities
