U.S. must rethink military power, says Southern command chief.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: Southern Command

* The security challenges of Latin America--drug trafficking, narco-terrorism and crime--are best tackled with diplomatic engagement and partnerships, not with massive military force, says the top U.S. military officer overseeing Latin America.

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"Our job is not to launch Tomahawk missiles here. It's effectively to launch ideas," says Navy Adm. James Stavridis, commander of U.S. Southern Command.

"By doing that, maybe you avoid, a decade later, the need to be there with a Tomahawk missile," he says at a Surface Navy Association conference.

Stavridis believes that the Navy, for example, should create a "humanitarian surface group" consisting of hospital ships and other vessels that would focus on aid missions and disaster response. "The idea of a structured humanitarian surface fleet is at least worth thinking about and considering," he says.

The Navy in late April announced its intention to re-establish its 4th Fleet, which will oversee ships operating in SouthCom waters.

In the counter-narcotics battle, Stavridis says his command needs better ways to detect and monitor drug trafficking. In 2006 and 2007, the Navy helped the Coast Guard and the Drug Enforcement Agency interdict nearly 500 tons of cocaine, but that amount only scratches the surface of the 500 million tons of cocaine that travel through the Caribbean every year, he says.

Drug cartels are using semi-submersible submarines to transport cocaine, Stavridis says. The Navy needs better...