Helping CE's in Iraq and Afghanistan

Politicians are battling it out on Capital Hill, but civil engineers in Iraq are struggling to do the right thing on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, too. We should be able to help ASCE members and our troops working to rebuild infrastructure in those two countries by sharing our technical expertise and giving them our moral support. How can CCI establish some sort of connection with US troops and CE's who are responsible for designing and rebuilding infrastructure there? Is there a way we can facilitate communications so troops and CE's in the Middle East can ask us questions, real-time, on how to overcome their technical obstacles?

Comments

[Rosa Manson]

There are many obstacles, within rebuilding the infrastructure in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Firstly, one needs to look at what the Institute of State Effectiveness are doing in order to determine whether Iraq or ~Afghanistan are measuring up, and what type of consensus is needed as tot he precise definition of an 'effective State' int he 21st Century.

Order can be emerged from chaos, by looking into various patterns and distilled lessons from other countries, for example the Marshall Plan, and economic consequences of peace.

One also needs to look at the Transparency International Corruption Index and one has to decide what is a 'Fair State' or a 'Welfare State.'

One also has to look at how and what would benefit the local community through the local peoples' knowledge and expertise, and through what the ASCE Members or the Troops feel is necessary as this may not be what the actual people perceive as their won way forward.

There needs to be more communication within Agencies on the ground and within the local community, and how one can work totogether on this culturally and sensitively to obtain ones' objectives.