ARTICLE: Gates proposes $2 billion in funds to aid unstable countries, By Mary Beth Sheridan and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post, December 24, 2009

Yet another radical thrust in the direction of the Department of Everything Else. You can tell by the vagueness of the institutional arrangements--not quite controlled by DoD alone and not quite controlled by State/USAID alone.

Naturally, it gets interpreted as a power play by the Pentagon, but the truth is, this is Gates trying to send this baby away from momma but knowing that only momma can trigger the process.

Remember this when you read my piece in Esquire next week.

(Thanks: waveman850, Jeffrey Itell and Robert Frommer)