Friends Committee on National Legislation

New Pentagon Directive Undermines Civilian Peacebuilding
Last summer - thanks to your lobbying - we celebrated congressional authorization and $55 million in funding to create a civilian response corps led by the State Department. This new civilian tool was designed to provide assistance to prevent state collapse and rebuild war torn countries. Now the Pentagon appears poised to undermine that important success for civilian peacebuilding.
Despite calls by senior military officials to create the civilian corps under the State Department, the Pentagon has announced it will form its own deployable corps. Defense Department Directive 1404.10, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England on January 23 (just three days into the new administration), directs the Pentagon to begin organizing, training, and equipping an "expeditionary workforce" of civilian volunteers to support humanitarian, reconstruction, and combat support missions.
FCNL believes that establishing a deployable Pentagon corps further militarizes U.S. engagement with the world and will make it harder for the State Department and USAID to receive funding and support for building the civilian capacities the United States so urgently needs. We have urged key congressional offices to speak out about the Pentagon's continued encroachment into civilian tasks. Please write your own letter to your members of Congress today.http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=12732266