bad, bad, bad idea

A broad Pentagon directive issued this week orders the U.S. military to be sure, the next time it goes to war, to prepare more thoroughly for picking up the pieces afterward.

More than a year in the making, the directive represents an ambitious attempt to bring about a fundamental, permanent widening in what U.S. troops are trained and equipped to do. Accustomed to focusing primarily on combat operations, U.S. forces under the new order must now give post-conflict stability operations similar priority, which means they must be ready in foreign countries to carry out such tasks as developing political institutions, establishing judicial systems and reviving economic activities.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113002076.html

I can't easily imagine a more foolish, wrong-headed approach to take. Military forces are military forces. They are not economists, political scientists, aid workers, or jurists. In a pinch, yes, military forces are someimes pressed into such roles temporarily, but we should not be making these into mission roles for our armed forces. The more effort we put into making soldiers into bankers, the less capable they will be at being soldiers. We need to identify agencies within our government who already carry out these functions or that could be tapped to help other nations develop them (the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce, working hand in hand with USG and NGO aid agencies and the Department of State). We should not be making this sort of action the focus for our military.