National Guard Bureau

Story by Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke

WASHINGTON -- The National Guard has a role in reconstruction missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it's not a long-term role, the secretary of defense told an audience here at the Joint Senior Leadership Conference, Nov. 19.

"I think this is basically a civilian task, and we ought to be there to help them," said Robert M. Gates. "We ought to be there when we're in a situation like Afghanistan, where the security may not be as strong enough for civilians to go in, to have people in there working on agricultural development and so on as the first phase so that we aren't waiting too long to begin showing people ways in which their lives can improve on a daily basis."

Gates said he believes that we need projects that can be done quickly and can show people that their lives have changed for the better by having troops in their village.

"My own view is we need to be very cautious about some of the big projects that people think about for development," he said.

Instead, Gates suggested building a well, an all-weather road for local farmers, a bridge or a one-room schoolhouse. "You can do a lot of these small projects within the framework of the dollars that we have available," he said. "But the most important thing about them is that the Afghans see them and the local Afghans see their lives getting better, because we're there.

"The first stage of doing that, I think, can be done by our military forces and especially by the National Guard, but longer term, that mission has to go to the civilian side of the government."

Gates suggested that correct sequencing is the key to these missions. "We need people as General [David] Petraeus did in Iraq, as soon as we've cleared an area literally the next day or the same day, we need somebody in there with some money and some capability that begins putting young men to work and putting a shovel or a broom in their hands instead of a gun," he said. "And it seems to me that's often the situation where the Guard and the expertise in the Guard can provide the initial response in areas in Afghanistan until the security situation is stabilized enough for the civilians to come in."

For almost two and a half years, Gates has said he believes the government's civilian experts in these areas have been neglected for too long.

When he retired in 1993, Gates said the Agency of International Development had about 16,000 employees, who deployed around the world to provide expertise in agricultural development, rule of law, governance and irrigation systems.

"It was an expeditionary agency," he said. "They expected to live in primitive conditions. And they expected to have situations that were occasionally dangerous. And that was part of their career and that was part of what they wanted to do with their lives."

AID now has about 3,000 employees, and it's mainly a contracting agency, Gates said. "So, we've lost that civilian capacity that played such an important role for us in the developing world all through the Cold War."

Under the last two administrations, Gates said the State Department is beginning to get the kind of funding that's needed to rebuild these capabilities, "but it's still a ways in the future and, in my view, there has to be a role" for these civilian experts.

However, Gates said, there will be a role for the military. "And particularly as one of the central themes in the QDR is the development of partnership relationships ... with other countries so that we can help them build their capacity, so we don't have to send Soldiers" to those countries.

Gates said relationships that exist between the National Guard and other countries in the State Partnership Program can help in building this capacity.

"I will tell you every time I meet with a minister of defense of a country, where we have those kinds of relationships, they bring it up with me," he said.

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