Stabilization and Reconstruction Staffing - RAND Corporation

AcknowledgmentsThe authors acknowledge the many dedicated Americans and allieswho have served in civilian staffs during SSTR operations in the recentpast, particularly in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. This monographis meant to make their and their successors’ tasks easier andmore successful. The hardships they and their families bear, as well asthe personal danger they face, are underreported and underappreciated.On April 23, 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt said in aspeech given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France: 1It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out howthe strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could havedone them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actuallyin the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but whodoes actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms,the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daringgreatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timidsouls who neither know victory nor defeat.This quote sums up the efforts of many great people who havespent portions of their lives, and sometimes have lost their lives, help-1 Theodore Roosevelt, “‘The Man in the Arena’ Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, France,April 23, 1910,” Citizenship in a Republic.xxi