Military Officers Want More Diplomacy And Development Assistance

July 14, 2008 | Tom Vogel

Marc Ambinder

The Atlantic

Here’s a sneak preview of a poll of 606 commissioned U.S. military officers conducted for the Center for U.S. Global Engagement, which holds a conference on national security in DC tomorrow.

## A significant majority of the officers recognize the need for non-military tools and diplomacy.

## They see the top national security threat by far as terrorism and Islamic extremism; what’s missing from our policy, they say, is (a) more diplomacy and (b) long-term investments in the Muslim world. In the words of Dem pollster Geoff Garin and GOP pollster Bill McInturff, ” a significant majority of officers surveyed embrace a new paradigm in which strengthened diplomacy and development assistance are important companions to traditional military tools for achieving America’s national security goals.”