U.S. commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly have asked for non-military help, such as engineers, agronomists and reconstruction experts. Such assistance typically would come from the U.S. Agency for International Development. But USAID is a shadow of its former self and mostly hires contractors to do the work. The military is overstretched, and would welcome an expansion of USAID, says Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli. But he does not expect things to change in the near future. “I’m not seeing a heck of a lot of movement to provide that capability yet,” he says.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the problem in a recent speech to USAID employees. “We have to regain some credibility in order to regain the authorities and the resources that have drifted elsewhere,” she says. Unless USAID can prove it can do the job, the responsibilities — and the big money — will continue to reside at the Pentagon, she adds. “Much of the migration of the authority and the resources to the Defense Department came about because they were able to move, and move aggressively and agilely, to fulfill a purpose or a need.”