"(...) military power should not - maybe cannot - be the last resort of the state. Military forces are some of the most flexible and adaptable tools to policymakers."
"(...) military may be the best and sometimes the first tool; it should never be the only tool. The tangible effects of military engagement may give policymakers a level of comfort not necessarily or wholly justified. As we have seen, the international environment is more fluid and more complex than ever before."
"Defense and diplomacy are simply no longer discrete choices, one to be applied when the other one fails, but must, in fact, complement one another throughout the messy process of international relations. "
"U.S. foreign policy is still too dominated by the military, too dependent upon the generals and admirals who lead our major overseas commands. It's one thing to be able and willing to serve as emergency responders; quite another to always have to be the fire chief."
"For, in addition to bringing the full weight of the U.S. government to bear, we must also bring our allies and partners with us to the fight. (...) these multinational commitments lend not only a higher sense of legitimacy to the effort, they lend to local populations certain skills and knowledge which we alone do not posses.
The Australians are experts at counterinsurgency warfare; the British have a long tradition of service in that part of the world and bring unique insights; the Germans and the French and the Italians have superb national police organizations for Afghans to emulate."
"Because frankly the battlefield isn't necessarily a field anymore. It's in the minds of the people. It's what they believe to be true that matters."
"Policy and strategy should constantly struggle with one another. Some in the military no doubt would prefer political leadership that lays out a specific strategy and then gets out of the way, leaving the balance of the implementation to commanders in the field. But the experience of the last nine years tells us two things: A clear strategy for military operations is essential; and that strategy will have to change as those operations evolve."In der sich der Rede anschließenden Diskussion mit den anwesenden Soldaten, kam auch die nukleare Abrüstung zur Sprache. Admiral Mullen machte deutlich, dass den USA an einer nuklearen Abrüstung gelegen sei. Er wies darauf hin, dass nicht nur Russland atomar bewaffnet ist, sondern zum Beispiel auch Pakistan und China. Auch diese Staaten müssten sich an Abrüstungsverhandlungen beteiligen. Außerdem müssten alle Nuklearwaffen Gegenstand von Verhandlungen werden. Er wies dabei insbesondere auf die in den kommenden Verhandlungen zwischen den USA und Russland nicht zur Disposition stehenden strategischen Langstreckenraketen Russlands hin. Solange nicht mit allen und im vollen Umfang über Abrüstung verhandelt wird und solange eine Weiterverbreitung von Atomwaffen nicht wirklich verhindert wird, solange sein an eine einseitige Abrüstung nicht zu denken.
Zum Thema "Internet" stellte Admiral Mullen einen unerwarteten Bezug her, nämlich zum Jemen und zu den Gefahren, denen der Einzelne im Internet ausgesetzt sein kann und welche überaus realen Folgen diese haben können:
"This is the Fort Hood killings? Yeah. We learned a lot from that. And one of the things that became more obvious to us than we knew was the potential for radicalization, using the Internet. And clearly, he had been in contact with a very eloquent, very radical imam in Yemen, who actually was - had spent a lot of time in the United States. And it is, in some ways, the next phase, if you will, of radicalization.Zum Thema Afrika befragt sagte Admiral Mullen, dass Afrika, speziell Somalia und der Jemen, im Augenblick keine militärischen "Situationen" sind, sondern vielmehr die Sicherheit betreffen. Das Hauptquartier der US Streitkräfte für Afrika, AFRICOM, sei daher auch nicht in Afrika angesiedelt:
And the same was true, as we found out more and more about the individual who was on the plane in Detroit on the 25th of December. So it's - for all of us, not just the military, but for all of us, we need to be paying a lot more attention to that."
"And that headquarters is stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. And I'm actually very comfortable with where it's stationed right now."Ich überlasse es meinen Lesern, aus dieser Rede eigene Schlüsse zu ziehen. Unterschätzen sollte man diese Rede und ihre offenkundigen Implikationen jedoch besser nicht.
Es ist überall dasselbe: Ein Alphat(ap)ier und dann 'der Rest der Herde', Führer und Gefolgschaft, Superstar und die, die ihn dazu machen (sollen), indem die das finanzieren. Na ja, und dann eben auch Generäle, Politiker, Präsidenten und Befehlsempfänger, die Masse, die Meinungen abbonniertund die Folgen trägt.
AntwortenLöschenNa denn man Tau. ;-)