Washington: The US military still plays too dominant a role in American foreign policy and Washington needs to place a higher priority on diplomacy and “soft power,” the top American officer said on Wednesday.
The military is a vital tool of national power but “should never be the only tool,” Admiral Mike Mullen said in a speech at Kansas State University.
“US foreign policy is still too dominated by the military — too dependent upon the generals and admirals who lead our major overseas commands and not enough on the State Department,” Mullen said.
“It’s one thing to be able and willing to serve as emergency responders, quite another to always have to be fire chief,” said Mullen, who as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff is the top-ranking American military officer.
Mullen backed calls by President Barack Obama to balance the military’s role with diplomacy, intelligence and other civilian efforts but said: “My fear, quite frankly, is that we aren’t moving fast enough in this regard.”
In future wars similar to counter-insurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mullen said that any decision to deploy forces should be accompanied by a commitment to employ civilian agencies as well.
He said that “we ought to make it a pre-condition of committing our troops — that we will do so only if and when the other instruments of national power are ready to engage as well.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “have called for more funding and more emphasis on our ‘soft power,’ and I could not agree with them more,” the admiral said.
If Washington relies solely on US troops to exert influence, “we should expect to see that influence diminish over time,” he said.
Citing his experience advising Obama and former president George W. Bush, Mullen laid out three “principles” that he said should govern the use of the military.
— The military should not be the last resort of the state but should be complemented by vigorous diplomacy and other civilian efforts.
— Military force should be used in “a precise and principled way” to protect innocent lives.
— Policy making cannot be separated from military strategy and debate among civilian and military leaders should be encouraged.
Referring to the war in Afghanistan, where the NATO commander has restricted the use of air power and heavy guns, Mullen said avoiding civilian casualties was crucial to the success of the mission.
“In this type of war — when the objective is not the enemy’s defeat but the people’s success — less really is more,” he said.
Mullen said recent incidents of coalition firepower claiming civilian lives “will hurt us more in the long run than any tactical success we may achieve against the enemy.”
