U.S. deficient against Muslim insurgents, study says

[Wretched Excess]

U.S. deficient against Muslim insurgents, study says

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military is seriously deficient in meeting "the threat of Islamist insurgencies," says a Pentagon-commissioned study released Monday.

 The Rand Corp. report characterizes "U.S. military intervention and occupation in the Muslim world" as "at best inadequate, at worst counter-productive, and, on the whole, infeasible." The Pentagon asked the nonprofit research organization to review strategies to thwart insurgents.

The United States should instead focus its priorities on improving "civil governance" and building "local security forces," according to the report, referring to those steps as "capabilities that have been lacking in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"Violent extremism in the Muslim world is the gravest national security threat the United States faces," said David C. Gompert, the report's lead author and a senior fellow at Rand. "Because this threat is likely to persist and could grow, it is important to understand the United States is currently not capable of adequately addressing the challenge."

The Pentagon did not respond to calls Monday from CNN seeking comment.

The report is titled "War by Other Means: Building Complete and Balanced Capabilities for Counterinsurgency."

It focused on the increase of about 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq over the past year -- the "surge" -- which supporters have credited for a decrease in insurgent attacks.

 But "it would be a profound mistake to conclude from [the troop increase] that all the United States needs is more military force to defeat Islamist insurgencies," Gompert said. "One need only contemplate the precarious condition of Pakistan to realize the limitations of U.S. military power and the peril of relying upon it."

The study notes that U.S. military interventions can be risky as well as costly because of the tenacity of jihadists, "infected by religious extremism." It says massive military interventions against insurgencies usually fail.

Looking at some 90 conflicts since World War II, the report concludes that establishing "representative, competent and honest" local government is the way to go.

Full Hit Job Here

look for nancy and harry to make major points on this tomorrow, along with The BarackStar! and hillary.

[Crazy Horse]

WTF does the US military have to do with Pakistan's problems??

[Lord Undies]

The People We Pay to Think
Introducing RAND, corporate welfare at its most influential

   What is RAND?
RAND is one of many nonprofit (non-taxpaying) institutions known as a "Think Tank".       What's a think tank? 
It's like a big corporation where people actually get paid to think. 

Who is paying them to do all this thinking? 
You and I are.  The government  pays RAND with our tax dollars to think about our nation's problems.  Then, when RAND is done thinking, they give a report to the government that tells the government what they should do about the problem.
   

What kinds of problems are we paying RAND to think about?
Since 1948, we've been paying RAND to think about child welfare, the justice system, education, our nation's drug policy, national security, social welfare, just about everything, actually.      
   

But those problems seem to have gotten much worse since 1948, when we started paying RAND to think about them. 
How much does the government pay RAND to think?
In the year 2000, we paid RAND over $140 million dollars. [1]


Who is involved with RAND?  (snip)

http://www.hereinreality.com/news/rand.html

Interesting site with a touch of BDS thrown in for good measure.

[Chris_]

Is not specifically targeting women and children deficient?

[LadyLiberty]

look for nancy and harry to make major points on this tomorrow, along with The BarackStar! and hillary.

Yep, they make the news so that they can make things go the way they want it to go 

That's the Dems for ya, manipulating this country as well as the rest of the world.

[Bh]

New commemorative coin to celebrate the war against radical Islam.