WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A recent report by Senate Republican staff warned that the growing role of the military in the global U.S. profile risked turf wars and alienating allies.
"There is evidence that some host countries are questioning the increasingly military component of America's profile overseas," said the report prepared by staff from the outgoing Republican majority of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month.
Then-committee Chairman Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., sent 6 staffers to visit 20 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East to examine the relationship between the State Department and the Defense Department in U.S. embassies there and the impact it was having in the war on terror.
"Some foreign officials question what appears to them as a new emphasis by the United States on military approaches to problems that are not seen as lending themselves to military solutions," states the report. "Some host countries have elements in both government and general society who are highly suspicious of potential American coercion."
The report was posted on the Web by the Federation of American Scientists Friday, the day the U.S. embassy in Athens, Greece, was hit with a small rocket or missile, an attack which a Greek Marxist group claimed responsibility for. No one was hurt.
The report also found that the growing role of the military risked damaging policy and management conflicts.
"Left unclear, blurred lines of authority between the State Department and the Defense Department could lead to inter-agency turf wars that undermine the effectiveness of the overall U.S. effort against terrorism," the report said.
