WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- Two former U.S. national security advisers say the United States must consider post-war reconstruction as much as military action in planning nation building.
Sandy Berger and Brent Scowcroft, national security advisers for President Clinton and President George H.W. Bush, respectively, put forth a series of ideas in an op-ed article in Wednesday's Washington Post. They are chairmen of a Council on Foreign Relations task force in improving U.S. post-conflict capabilities.
"Military conflict has two dimensions: winning wars and winning the peace," Berger and Scowcroft wrote. "We excel in the first, but without an equal focus on the second, combat victories can be lost."
The former officials said their task force at the Council on Foreign Relations posed several points the United States should consider for Iraq's rebuilding, including clear lines of authority in the country facing change; the military must remain in charge of security, even post-war; and an effective United Nations.
