Dexter Filkins article on the move away from militarization of USFP

Great article by Dexter Filkins (don't forget to read his book Forever War, gives amazing insight into the war from outside the green zone and through Iraqi eyes) in today's NYTimes Week in Review section, "American Power Puts on the Civvies."

The article focuses on the shift away from the total militarization USFP (US foreign policy) under Obama. "America's engagement withe dangerous parts of the world in that time [Bush years, since 9/11] became largely militarized good at projecting force but sometimes it seemed missing opportunities that might have been better exploited by an earlier and more virgorous use of people without guns." Holbrooke is a new "paradigm" emphasizing a "wide range of tools."

He uses as one example the informal meeting Holbrooke and General Mullen had with Afghan tribal leaders. David Ignatius also wrote about this last week; I posted on it here.

(Interesting sidenote Filkins points out: General Mullen offered part of his budget to the State Dept when he was chief of naval operations in 2007. This doesn't happen everyday.)

The article concludes with the story of a laugh shared among Mullen, Holbrooke and Afghan clerics.