A pit bull is born a fighter. Those who join the military are fighters and are willing to give their lives in the defense of their country. The Department of Defense is asking those who are trained to fight and give their lives to alter their mindset and turn to a completely opposite role: nurturing.

Current DOD doctrine is to partner with other nations’ militaries to provide security cooperation activities to lessen the causes of a potential crisis before a situation deteriorates and requires coercive U.S. military intervention. The U.S. Air Force currently trains and deploys air advisers that embed hundreds of active-duty airmen for up to a year to nurture and advise other nations’ air forces. On April 27, 2011, eight USAF advisers were murdered in a single event in Kabul because of improper training that resulted in them letting their guard down and relaxing their natural fighting instinct.

While building relationships and nurturing other militaries can be in the best interest of the U.S., DOD is not the correct agency to conduct these types of operations. The main reason DOD is charged with this task is because it is filling a void left by the agency that should assist with nation building, the State Department. The State Department must be properly funded and manned with the appropriate experienced contractors (most likely former Air Force members with the needed skills) to enable this mission. Let the DOD fight and defend; let the State Department nurture and befriend.

Russ Brown

Maui, Hawaii

Learn sex assault investigation

I am a retired civilian police commander of more than 26 years and have two honorable discharges from military service. With all of the recent media coverage of the sexual assaults that are occurring in the military, I have a fix: Military leadership needs to take the necessary steps in proper training from the civilian law enforcement community.

You never hear about police officers in sex crime units going around groping, assaulting and raping female victims. The military needs to send personnel to civilian law enforcement training to learn the proper way of investigating sexual assault cases and how to treat the victims of these vicious attacks.

The military also needs to properly screen any military member who would have a role in sexual assault investigations, victim response teams or victim counseling.

The Air Force tried to take jurisdiction of the recent incident involving the commander of the Air Force’s sexual assault unit. Air Force leaders tried this tactic because they know that civilian law enforcement and the courts will do their jobs.

Steven Guibord

Kuwait

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