During the 1961 SOTU address, President John F. Kennedy renewed his call for the establishment of a National Peace Corps, "enlisting the services of all those with the desire and capacity to help foreign lands meet their urgent needs for trained personnel." Officially, the Peace Corps mission today has three goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

A product of its hippie-feel good time, the Peace Corps embodies the nobility of our democratic experiment while advancing the interests of our nation. Fast forward to 2007.

On Tuesday, President Bush capped the romp through Bizarro world that was his SOTU address with a call for the formation of a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps, he declared "would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them." This little gem was dropped into the speech between his call to expand America's standing Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 troops, and the expected Iran-is-gonna-go-nuclear! posturing; the proposal was not further defined. Some admittedly amateur research on the proponents of the Civilian Reserve Corps yielded two major advocates and their ideas of what the Corps should look like.

First is 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, four-star General Wesley Clark. The General's 2004 platform envisioned a volunteer force of specially skilled Americans to be called at the pleasure of the President to serve both domestic and international functions ranging from fighting forest fires to nation building. Think "Global Frequency," but run by the President and only for Americans.

The second Civilian Reserve Corps cheerleader is Refugees International. In their 2006 testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, the policy organization stressed the need to fund a Civilian Reserve Corps under the direction of the State Department Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. More on their views can be found here.

There are still a ton of questions to be answered, but the primary goals seem to be:

1. Decrease or eliminate the fabulous amounts of U.S. tax payer dollars paid to private contractors (Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, etc) for their rolls in certain areas of operational support.
2. Take pressure off the Pentagon which is struggling with the nigh-impossible challenges of recruiting, training, and retaining individuals who are both able and willing to perform highly specialized occupations (i.e translators!) for a fraction of what they could earn in the private sector.

Whether the Civilian Reserve Corps will be a de facto National War Corps comprised of mercenaries and opportunistic malcontents or a real life GI-Joe(listen to the words, people) remains to be seen. Either way, it will change the way American foreign policy, and the business of war is conducted for generations to come.

The biggest WTF? Why aren't more people talking about this?

Labels: Blackwater, Civilian Reserve Corps, General Wesley Clark, Global Frequency, Halliburton, John F Kennedy, KBR, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., SOTU Address

The first rule of watching the SOTU is to discount the standing ovations. I even know some old schoolers who refuse to watch at all, and prefer to listen to an audio broadcast, or read a transcript to avoid being influenced in their thinking by all the clapping going on. The reason to ignore the ovations is obvious: It generally doesn't give any indication as to how Congress will actually vote on or spin the issues they are clapping for. These are career politicians, and they can't be seen not clapping for things like helping the poor, supporting the troops, or outlawing miniature bunny stickball. It's just bad business. But this Congress is severely divided with the Administration on nearly every aspect of American foreign and domestic policy, so the silent, uncomfortable battle of wills that led up to these First Citizens of America actually rising off of their privileged asses almost thirty times to applaud our lame duck President was thoroughly entertaining.

There were a few gimmies of course. Madam Speaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the highest ranking female elected official in our nation's History. She got two ovations out of the gate. Then there were the four ovations directed toward the gallery where the President's invited guests (an altruistic African immigrant, a millionaire entrepreneur mom, one of the damn craziest New Yorkers EVER, and an Army Sergeant wounded in battle) were seated. But the most telling ovations were those given so grudgingly it hurt just to watch.

First was a stuttering, are you gonna stand? I'm not standing. Are you standing? No, I'm not standing. I'm just leaning forward in my seat while clapping. Well, you look like you're gonna stand so I'm standing. Oh, crap he stood up! Now I have to stand. Shit now we're all standing and clapping. What are we clapping for? Oh yeah, the President just said "global climate change." Meaningful? Besides the fact that the most obtuse President in History paid lip service to climate change...no. But it was entertaining. Way to go Dems! Didn't you get the memo?

The other two ovations of note were in response to the proposed troop increases in Iraq. One of the best lines of the speech, "Ladies and gentlemen, on this day at this hour it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory," was met with all the tension and awkwardness of an overly affectionate hug from a drunken in-law at a bereavement function. And the response President's plan to station those troops in Baghdad and Anbar Province was even worse than that.

There's much more of course. So be sure to tune in next time for Ern's State of the Union Recap, Part 2: WTF?

Labels: Nancy Pelosi, SOTU Address