14 November 2007

Flipping the Bird



I was slogging through the Times this morning, trying to dodge the obligatory Socotra task, attempting to avoid the Quarterly draft I have to get to lay-out this week and scowling at the half-done Big Pink novella that needs another twenty thousand words to meet the Novel-in-November deadline.

It was easier not to think about it. The paper left me tingling in the way an amputee is supposed to feel the sensation from missing limbs. As a recovering crisis junkie, I was drawn to the articles that had potential to force movement. Deployments I will not make.

And the food, of course. With so much on the plate I have not thought much about Thanksgiving, which I feel already slipping away. Halloween slipped by almost unnoticed, since there are no trick-or-treaters at Big Pink, and the usual suspects failed to throw a party.

I'll take the rap for that. I should have done something, just as I feel the noose of justice drawing tight around my throat for the next symbolic speed-bump on the road to the winter solstice. With the Australia deployment in the summer, that will mark the second time in six months I have celebrated the darkest day of the year.

I should be going somewhere, or having people in, and neither option has got off the drawing board. I have that unsettled feeling that I am going to be watching some football game alone.

Last year I had company, and the world looked a lot different. Why would you drag the deep-fryer out of the closet and fill it with oil, if you did not have someone to throw things in it with, marveling at the variety of objects you can batter and cook if you put your mind to it.

That was a vegan feast, and one of the best ever. No bird, no ham, no roast of beef. It was a green meal altogether, over which no one and no thing had to die. Tofu brats in kraut, creamed onions, green-bean casserole, fresh creamery biscuits.

I am not going to give up my status as an omnivore, but I am increasingly uneasy about where I am sitting on the food chain, and the building blocks of industrial cruelty that prop up my bologna sandwich.

I skipped over the presidential succession in Pakistan, which is too depressing, and got to the op-eds with some interest. I guy named Max Boot from the Foreign Policy Institute got my blood boiling. His commentary was so right on that it hurt.

His words resonated powerfully, since I struggled as an action-officer through the big draw-down in the Defense Department after the end of the Cold War. It was painful, though interesting; a little like confronting dozens of holidays without the means to travel.

I occasionally think about things beyond the range of my former career, though I am as myopic as most. The same things that screwed up the workforce in Spookland hit the cookie-pushers at Foggy Bottom.

I should not say that with such contempt. We were taught at the Industrial College that the means of national strength are full spectrum. A strong industrial base is a requisite for military strength, which as Clauswitz famously noted, is only used at the ultimate end of the political process.

We spent a lot of time building an agile and lethal military force, and it has proved to be quite effective at that upper end of the spectrum and quite a failure in the twilight zone between peace and brigade conflict.

We have largely failed to reconstruct the other components of the elements of national power that were savaged in the draw-down of the early '90s. We need to flip that over, or we are going to pay dearly for our folly.

I have a great pal who was a career USAID official, specializing in Francophone Africa. He retired recently as the acting Administrator for Administration, an oddly redundant title, but his lofty position shows that he had the right stuff, organizationally.

USAID and the US Information Agency were both devoured by Main State, and the professionals who worked there became second-class citizens. The former organization successfully managed the infrastructure that supported the insurgency against the Russians in Afghanistan, while the latter should have conducted the Information War against the jihadis at which DoD and Karen Hughes at State failed so miserably.

I am a huge believer in the full-spectrum use of power. USAID impressed me no end on the ground in Haiti. Their courage and dedication, not to mention the feeding programs, kept a dire situation from getting worse and washing up in Miami. Yet the USAID folks were clearly discriminated against by the Foreign Service Officers in career progression.

The closest I can come to it in military terms is the way a Boat School graduate looks at the reserves, or a West Pointer at the National Guard.

Boot is onto something profound. I had a Public Health Service Flag Offier who worked for me at HHS- we swapped stories about the hot spots in which we had served; the provision of health services was more important to stabilization of local society than almost everything else except rice.

The full spectrum of conflict is where we have always failed, and we cannot afford to do it again. Bolting on nation-building capabilities to the active military is showing some promise, after the disaster of the Bremer interregnum in Iraq, but the missions are not supposed to be a core military value.

It is like buying a car and considering the air conditioner to be an aftermarket issue to jam in the passgenger seat.

No wonder the military people are so pissed off about what they have been told to do.

Boot says there is a guy named James Locher running around town with a wild idea of applying a Goldwater-Nichols-style Act to the civilian bureaucracy. Make the civil servants do a tour in other agencies to broaden their understanding of national capabilities. Force the agencies to tie promotion to experience. Revitalize the corps of senior leaders.

AFRICOM, the new joint command that will coordinate activities in Africa might be the laboratory to check out some of the concepts. A civilian has been named as the deputy commander, from State, and the senior intelligence officer will not be in uniform. There is the glimmering idea that influence on the continent might not hinge on cruise missiles alone.

Not that there is anything wrong with them, of course. I am not going soft on you. Just pragmatic.

Mr. Locher is shooting for something as profound in impact as the National Security Act of 1947, which created the national security institutions that eventually defeated the Soviets. I hope one of the candidates picks up on his ideas. It will not be this President who does it, and it would be something worth talking about as we wait for more than a year to decide what is coming next.

It is beyond time to overhaul the other instruments of national power. For starts, we need to shake up State the same way that DoD got sandblasted down to bare metal. We need to break out USAID, and reconstitute the USIA with some budget clout and mission authority.

We need to harness the rest of the government, too, particularly the Public Health Service. Food, information and health care are perhaps the most powerful smart weapons.

We ought to be using them.

Which is exactly why I am looking at a new casserole for the centerpiece for Thanksgiving. I had been considering the purchase of a heritage Turkey to support the continuation of viable genetic lines. These are the increasingly rara avis that   can fly short distances, and strut around and mate just like a real birds. I believe in genetic diversity, but on consideration I have come to think that they ought to just keep on doing exactly that- walking around.

I am instead leaning toward the more decadent side of the spectrum of cheese-and-butter-filled casseroles, really harnessing the full capability of the kitchen. Something oozing with cheesy gooiness coupled with the soul-satisfying richness of a soufflé.

I saw something with a lot of potential: a layered array of cubed corn bread, all American, with fresh ricotta, roasted red peppers and sautéed broccoli rabe drowned in eggs and half-and-half, then baked until it rises with a lightly-browned and stately crown.

It is supposed to be rich but not too sweet, spicy but delicate.

All I have to do is figure out where to cook it.

Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

Here is the recipe, if you care, with credit to Melissa Clark of the New York Times:

Time: 1 1/2 hours, plus 4 hours or overnight resting
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for pan
1 garlic clove, minced
 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 pound broccoli rabe, outer leaves and thick stems removed; florets and tender stems coarsely chopped (about 3 cups)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
 1/4 cup chopped roasted red pepper
 1/4 cup chopped pitted calamata olives
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups half-and-half or whole milk
 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 pounds homemade or purchased corn bread, cut into 2-inch cubes (about 8 cups)
1 cup fresh ricotta cheese
6 ounces grated Gruyère cheese (1 1/2 cups).

Directions:

1. Oil a 9-by 13-inch baking dish. In a large skillet, heat remaining oil over medium heat; add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add broccoli rabe and increase heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add

 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup water. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until broccoli rabe is very tender, about 3 minutes longer. (If mixture looks watery when rabe is done, let simmer uncovered for a minute to dry it out.) Transfer to a bowl and stir in roasted pepper and olives.

2. Make a custard by whisking together eggs, half-and-half or milk, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and the black pepper.

3. Spread corn-bread cubes in prepared dish. Scatter vegetable mixture over corn bread. Dot with dollops of ricotta. Pour custard evenly over corn bread. Sprinkle with Gruyère. Cover baking dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

4. When ready to bake strata, remove it from refrigerator and let rest at room temperature while oven preheats to 350 degrees. Bake until firm and golden on top, about 45 to 55 minutes. Cool at least 20 minutes before serving. Serve hot or warm.

Yield: 10 main-course servings or 16 side-dish servings.


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