Good Summary
Of the same things I'd heard last year, the same problems and issues. Logistics is broken, they don't know how to use NCO's (or build an NCO Corps), and there is a definite lack of trust.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/magazine/20iraq.html
Of course, on the last page they talked about the need to put these criticisms in perspective "As for logistics, he said, it is important that the Iraqis demonstrate that they are in control of their own military by assuming responsibility for sustaining and paying their own soldiers, though measures to ease the strain, like allowing commanders to buy some provisions locally, are under consideration." for example.
I dunno. I guess we'll have to see how things turn out.
Still, I keep thinking of basic leadership/team building. Well, that's what I think of with the whole involvement over here, honestly. Its kind of hard to explain, but its sort of like what I've been saying about having boundaries and being centered. You have to create a vision of what you want, show people how to make that vision happen, and give them a reason to buy into your vision. In order to do all of that you must have trust. Not trust as in being perfect - the pressure to be perfect is what often leads to hypocritical leaders who tell their soldiers to do the 'right' thing when everyone knows that they themselves haven't been doing it. For all my own mistakes, my soldiers tend to trust me because I don't try to hide them or be hypocritical about it. Anyways, you have to build the belief that you can make your vision happen, and that you will.
In some ways that is what we lost, by not having enough troops on the ground to prevent looting and rioting while protecting ourselves. We destroyed some of that social fabric of trust - the belief that those who step out of line are punished, for example. People say they are shocked by the looting in Hurricane Katrina - but people are very much social creatures and their ability to do 'right' is often as much a product of environment as it is that they are 'civilized'. Hell, if the Holocaust taught us anything it should have taught us that 'civilization' does not preclude the ability to act like beasts. Really, people aren't going to be 'good' independent of environment unless/until they have an internal code and motivation beyond the whole legal system.
Anyways, I got sidetracked. What I was saying by that is that people react to their environment, and once some people react by looting - and get away with it - it creates an environment of the Wild, Wild West of sorts. Where the person with the most firepower and the willingness to back it up - and is right there in front of you - gets what they want. Not that they were too far from that under Saddam anyway, but he at least made sure it was always his guys that had the most firepower.
The article talked about how a lot of efforts were like 'whack a mole'. You just move around and occasionally find targets and occasionally get hit, but it isn't necessarily a cohesive plan to win the war.
I guess to me a cohesive plan would be to focus strongly in one area - not as in killing all the insurgents (and then leaving), as we've done that before and they roll right back in after we leave. Actually, let me write about that in a separate post here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/magazine/20iraq.html
Of course, on the last page they talked about the need to put these criticisms in perspective "As for logistics, he said, it is important that the Iraqis demonstrate that they are in control of their own military by assuming responsibility for sustaining and paying their own soldiers, though measures to ease the strain, like allowing commanders to buy some provisions locally, are under consideration." for example.
I dunno. I guess we'll have to see how things turn out.
Still, I keep thinking of basic leadership/team building. Well, that's what I think of with the whole involvement over here, honestly. Its kind of hard to explain, but its sort of like what I've been saying about having boundaries and being centered. You have to create a vision of what you want, show people how to make that vision happen, and give them a reason to buy into your vision. In order to do all of that you must have trust. Not trust as in being perfect - the pressure to be perfect is what often leads to hypocritical leaders who tell their soldiers to do the 'right' thing when everyone knows that they themselves haven't been doing it. For all my own mistakes, my soldiers tend to trust me because I don't try to hide them or be hypocritical about it. Anyways, you have to build the belief that you can make your vision happen, and that you will.
In some ways that is what we lost, by not having enough troops on the ground to prevent looting and rioting while protecting ourselves. We destroyed some of that social fabric of trust - the belief that those who step out of line are punished, for example. People say they are shocked by the looting in Hurricane Katrina - but people are very much social creatures and their ability to do 'right' is often as much a product of environment as it is that they are 'civilized'. Hell, if the Holocaust taught us anything it should have taught us that 'civilization' does not preclude the ability to act like beasts. Really, people aren't going to be 'good' independent of environment unless/until they have an internal code and motivation beyond the whole legal system.
Anyways, I got sidetracked. What I was saying by that is that people react to their environment, and once some people react by looting - and get away with it - it creates an environment of the Wild, Wild West of sorts. Where the person with the most firepower and the willingness to back it up - and is right there in front of you - gets what they want. Not that they were too far from that under Saddam anyway, but he at least made sure it was always his guys that had the most firepower.
The article talked about how a lot of efforts were like 'whack a mole'. You just move around and occasionally find targets and occasionally get hit, but it isn't necessarily a cohesive plan to win the war.
I guess to me a cohesive plan would be to focus strongly in one area - not as in killing all the insurgents (and then leaving), as we've done that before and they roll right back in after we leave. Actually, let me write about that in a separate post here.