PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Autumn 2004

This is an idea that I haven't heard from anywhere else, but I find it very convincing.The whole article is interesting to read for a discussion of the troop levels, strain, and wisdom of a draft. PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Autumn 2004--The Need to Increase the Size of the Deployable Army

Third and finally, the United States should create various types of nonmilitary units in other parts of the government that would be useful in any stabilization mission. Their specialties should include not only security activities but reconstruction assistance as well. The idea should not be to create capacity that is already found in the armed forces. Nor should it be to pay for large formations of many thousands of police and aid officials who would do little except during such missions. For possible operations in countries the size of Iraq or Afghanistan, where standard police sizing rules would suggest the need for up to 100,000 police, fielding standing forces that were often on standby in the United States would be inordinately expensive.15 Rather, the smarter approach would be to create a nucleus of experts in various fields that could become the core of any larger operation, drawing on reservists and nongovernmental organizations and private contractors to beef up their ranks as needed.

We don't have an exact equivalent to the kinds of professional civilian administrators that the British used in nation building/empire administration. I have no facts, but I assume that Defense and State are filling most of these roles in Iraq as well as private contractors and some spots being filled by people like Ari Fleischer's brother who have friends in high places. An excerpt from Paul Krugman's June 29th column:

In March, Michael Fleischer, a New Jersey businessman, took over. Yes, he's Ari Fleischer's brother. Mr. Fleischer told The Chicago Tribune that part of his job was educating Iraqi businessmen: "The only paradigm they know is cronyism. We are teaching them that there is an alternative system with built-in checks and built-in review."