Why doesn’t the Peace Corps have a role to play in Iraq?
Part of the problem with the occupation of Iraq was that we didn’t have enough civilians, and in particular not enough Arabic-speaking civilians, out among the population doing useful things for Iraqis.
Does anyone know why no attempt was made to either (1) shift current Peace Corps volunteers to Iraq or (2) recruit Peace Corps alumni, who are used to living rough among the folks they’re trying to help, to re-join the Corps for service in Iraq? I don’t know how many current or former Peace Corps members speak Arabic, but I can’t believe the answer is “None.”
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
Saintperle
But what we can see happening right now, even through the cloudy filter of restricted press access, is that the "Arab Assets" we relied on ate our lunch, made stuff up in a "give me some money and then let's you and him fight" deal.