Soft Power... Its All the Rage

This morning, Defense Secretary Gates emphasized his view that the US should concentrate more on "soft power" in its foreign affairs and not on military strength. (Soft power referring to diplomacy, foreign aid, and overall persuasion geared toward influencing events in foreign countries). This is the third time I have heard the term "soft power" coming from a military or Republican speaker. Maybe its catching on.

Gates also had some illustrative examples of how skewed our priorities are toward warfare: 1) the Pentagon spends more on healthcare than the entire State Department budget, 2) the entire US diplomatic corps could not man a single carrier group, 3) USAID used to employ over 9,000 people. It now employs about 3,000.

When your mindset and budget are so skewed toward war making, is it any surprise that military solutions are privileged over diplomatic solutions.