WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- A report criticizing the Pentagon for alleged unwillingness to work with other U.S. agencies is likely to get more attention, The Washington Post said Monday.
The newspaper said the little-noticed report from nonpartisan The Project on National Security Reform, released seven weeks ago, studied the Iraq invasion and determined that U.S. Department of Defense war planners need to cut in civilians from the State Department and other agencies in order to avoid the kind of chaotic post-war scenarios as the one seen in Iraq.
The incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is likely to take the report's recommendations seriously because two of the its authors, James Steinberg -- frequently mentioned as a potential Obama national security adviser -- and Michele Flournoy, have close ties to the Obama camp, the Post said.
The report called for the budgets of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to be greatly increased so they can be given a greater role in war planning, saying the agencies "need to become more operational, that is, able to lead in the management of grand enterprises in unsafe and austere environments," the newspaper reported.
