Does The U.S. Need A 'Failed State' Policy

A civil defense member gestures towards a rebel fighter as they search for survivors at a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian Air Force in Idlib city, Syria Dec. 20, 2015.

Jeff Seldin, VOA: Critics Say US Needs ‘Failed State' Policy for Syria, Iraq

In about one month, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Syrian opposition groups are set to meet for peace talks in Geneva. But already, there is a sense that the talks, advocated by the United States, are doomed to fail.

One major problem, according to current and former intelligence and military officials, is that U.S. policy has simply not adjusted to the complex realities on the ground.

“I haven’t seen any indication that the U.S. has a coherent plan for dealing with failed states,” former CIA Director James Woolsey told VOA. “I don’t think the Obama administration has developed one.”

Woolsey and others point to a growing list of so-called failed states in the Middle East and elsewhere, where critical institutions have collapsed and the power vacuum is being filled by various groups with different agendas.

WNU Editor: The problem with developing and formulating such a policy is that governments and their citizens are loathe to commit the necessary manpower, resources, and monies to "fix" a failed state. When one looks at Syria and Iraq .... one can easily see the deployment of a hundred thousand plus soldiers, hundreds of billions of dollars, and the high probability of a low intensity guerilla campaign coupled with a commitment that may last for decades.

Zimbabwe Is The Second Most-Failed State In The World, After Somalia

From This Is Zimbabwe:

Would you plan a holiday to Somalia…?

I wouldn’t.

All I know of Somalia are the images I see on 24 hour news channels: gun-toting bandits shooting from the hip and spraying bullets down battered streets, looking as if their military training came via comic book villains.

Or pirates hijacking ships and holding sailors and cargo worth billions hostage.

The thought of a holiday there hardly fills me with anticipatory excitement … so no, I wouldn’t go there!

So imagine my shock when I saw the latest Failed States Index for 2009. The only state worse than Zimbabwe is Somalia. Our country is the second most failed state in the world. And it’s not even as if we’re trailing far behind Somalia either: we’re a mere 0.7 points below them.

Read more ....

My Comment: The Foreign Policy list of Failed States is here. I disagree with some of their assessments .... I would label Canada as most stable .... but the entire post is still an informative read.

Failed States, Cholera, and ‘Preventive Action’ -- A Commentary

A child leaves a burial plot for cholera victims in Zimbabwe. (The New York Times)

From The New York Times:

Celia Dugger’s stunning descriptions of the unfolding cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe brought to mind issues raised at the “Center for Preventive Action Symposium” at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York Tuesday. There, specialists in the world’s most turbulent regions held forth with a menu of ways the Obama administration might blunt, if not avert, crises with preventive action.

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