By Thomas Mahnken
John Barry, one of the nation's most insightful defense
reporters, has posted a piece for Newsweek
arguing that the Pentagon should be put in charge of the Haiti relief
effort. As he notes, the only
institution capable of meeting the demands of the Haiti crisis is not the
United Nations, but the U.S. military.
As in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. armed
forces have once again become the responder of first resort. In this case, the U.S. Navy is front and
center: the USS Carl Vinson's
heavy-lift helicopter and the USS Bataan
and USS Ft McHenry's air cushioned
landing craft are bringing needed supplies to the people of Haiti.
There are three lessons here. First, for all the talk of
whole-of-government solutions, the U.S. military remains the most competent
national security institution we have. In recent years, the men and women of the U.S. armed forces have time
and time again responded admirably when called upon to conduct missions far
beyond those for which they were trained.
Second, the very competence of the military has become a
sort of trap. Time and time again, the
military has taken up the slack when other national security institutions do
not perform as well as they can or should. Tasks better performed by the State Department or U.S. Agency for
International Development, state or local governments, or non-governmental
organizations too often wind up being performed by soldiers, sailors, airmen
and marines.
Third, when the American taxpayer bought today's Navy, he
got a lot more than he thought he was getting. He not only got a force capable of defending American interests on the
high seas, but also one possessing the flexibility to respond rapidly to
contingencies across the spectrum of conflict. Let's hope that the Obama administration's Quadrennial Defense Review,
to be released next month, reflects this reality.
The Obama administration has two choices. First, it can continue to hope that, with
more funding and some presidential leadership, the other parts of the national
security community will finally rise to the occasion. Both Secretary of Defense Gates and Secretary
of State Clinton (both at Foggy Bottom and before that in the Senate) have been
articulate advocates for whole-of-government approaches. I very much hope they succeed.
If not, the logical alternative is to do what
John Barry says and give missions like Haiti to the Pentagon. Such an approach would, however, be
undesirable; it would further dilute U.S. military capabilities while also
delegitimizing those institutions that should be bringing their unique talents
to bear on crisis situations.
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