On 3/12/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ......One that would say prepare Iraqi troops to take over military operations....
This is part of the larger problem. Before I left Iraq in Dec. of '05, we turned over our palace complex to the local government in Tikrit. The IA (Iraqi Army) took over force protection (FOB Security) from us. We trained these "soldiers" for about three weeks. We showed them everything they need to do in order to be successful. When we left we had a bad feeling about these guys. They would sleep in the towers constantly, would not wear their protective gear on a regular bases, and when our towers were fired upon by the insurgents, we literally had to step over the IA to shoot back as he was cowering on the floor in front of the machine gun we had. Another problem is that the officers do not want to give up any control of power to their NCO's (Sergeants). The way that the US military and MANY other successful militaries across the world work is that they use the NCO corps to run things. Officers are like upper management. They make policy and war plans and so on, and NCO's execute these plans/policies. We are now running NCO academies in Iraq that are fashioned similar to our academies and we are hopeful that this will work. But, unless we can get the officers on board with the concept that NCO's run the day to day operations of their military, I do not think they will be successful. This means that we have to undo what has been taught these officers for decades. Iraq use the soviet concept of only the leaders know what is happening, and if you cut the head off of the leadership, the body falls. We also need to figure out how to make these soldiers braver so that they are willing to fight rather than cower down in fear or use the "spray and pray" tactic that is so prevalent in these men. I know that there are many brave Iraqi soldiers who are and have been willing to fight and that is great. Hopefully this attitude will spread. On a side note, I have not heard anything about Tikrit since I left, which to me means that these men are doing that they need to in order to survive and protect their complex that used to belong to Saddam. Maybe too that since the US Army left that complex the insurgents are not so inclined to attack them and they can concentrate their efforts to where the Americans are? I dunno. Just thinking out loud. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create Web Applications With ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2. Build powerful, scalable RIAs. Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/ Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:229939 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
