This page has just been started and is Under Construction as of 29th July 2016 to articilate our work in this mutually interrelated area that we have contributed to on an ongoing basis in our companies 38 year history since June 1985. As our group of company’s private company roots are very much that of a defence contractor and Ordnance & Aviation Engineering Developer, and we are not publically funded in any way for this area, we work with NGOs, other companies and organizations, and governments to help accomplish these ongoing objectives.
We not only see no contradiction between our field and Peace and Stability Operations Support, but in fact they are mutually complemenary. You cannot have one without the other. It is also better to have ongoing proactive engagement, rather then acting at the last minite as the International community is infamous for doing; tradition mostly(1), when things have already “gone to S..t” Its always “more expensive” then for the hapless victims at that point of no return. When the people in our field operate to the highest professional standards we are like the logistic supply for a Hospital ICU or Emerg Departmenht and it is a very special moment when our work can make a real difference in the lives of others.
Right now we are also working on a donated medical aid projects, one with and an NGO for two theaters of operation. It is truly tragic when someone’s country and home and surrounding area become a “theater of operations”, but right now it is what it is, and it falls to people like you and I to step up and deliver, and to “stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves”, at least yet.
(1) General James Mattis before the Senate Armed Services Committee as CENTCOM Commander in 2013. After telling General Mattis about his meeting with our “distinguished group” of NSAC (National Security advisory Council members, Senator Wicker asked, “Have you observed that the International Development budget is helpful to us in providing national defense for our country?” General Mattis pointed out that, “If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately. So I think it’s a cost benefit ratio. The more that we put into the State Department’s diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget as we deal with the outcome of an apparent American withdrawal from the international scene.”
The real “trick” or long term objective is to proactively engage internationally on a persistent, low intensity, sustained basis with genuine diplomacy, rule of law, governance improvement and maintenance and peace and stability operations that can and should form the basis upon which international development aid has the breathing room and stability to truly take hold and endure. When we don’t support this foundation seriously, then much or all of the international development aid can even be wasted or be for not. And when we isolate ourselves some of these solvable situations brew up to a full scale firestorm. As Sec Def. Robert Gates said as he was retiring: “every-time America turns inward, we get ourselves in some really big wars”. This especially applies to the international community’s “head in the sand approach” (ignore the problem and in will just go away or someone else will clean it up) until “disaster is non our door step. We espouse high values and ideals; however, when we dishonour them and show that we have no honour or code behind these core values that we said were ours at the moment of truth we are shown for who we are. From there things go from bad to worse and our credibility to solve future problems is compromised or destroyed; as we trade someone else freedom and peace for our own, or so we perceive. There is no “free lunch” and at that point we really do need to buy more ammunition.
Why do we even care what happens to our friends and allies; our brothers and sisters, before it is too late? We are all bound together by a common humanity, and helping them anchors our own, and this caring; however, difficult is part of what makes us feel so alive. It adds real purpose and meaning to our lives and is part of what makes us who we are. God/Allah please give us the strength and means to help these people. While I do not consider myself overly religious, today this is my prayer.
“Semper Fidelis” to their humanity as our “brother’s keeper” means “Semper Fidelis” to our own.
In the words of words of the American Romanian writer Elie Wiesel: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference”.
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest”.