One Hand Clapping ? Blog Archive ? Iraqi military culture
This is not promising. Donald Sensing is a former Army officer and has generally been very supportive of the GWOT broadly and the Iraq War specifically. The linked article tells us:
Not very rosy indeed. Sensing points to Arab tribalism as the root problem and hints that it is immutable. That would mean the whole exercise is doomed to failure and we have no hope of creating a western style military culture (or any western style civil cuture for that matter). If that is correct, we should have simply leveled Iraq and Afghanistan and went home. We should be completely out of the nation building business. That means, in the case of Iran, North Korea and Lybia, no diplomacy or nation building on the table, just destroy their infrastructure and ability to wage war and go home. The Scowcroftian paleocons are big fans of this idea. Call it war on the cheap. We need only deploy a carrier group and destroy cities, manufacturing facilities, military bases or whatever.
If you think we're international pariahs now, wait until we give up nation building after we destroy a hostile nation.
This is not promising. Donald Sensing is a former Army officer and has generally been very supportive of the GWOT broadly and the Iraq War specifically. The linked article tells us:
So after 6 months we’ve:
- taught them techniques for planning operations…they won’t do it.
- shown them how to conduct weapons sustainment ranges…they won’t do it.
- we’ve shown them how to conduct convoys…they won’t do it.
- we’ve taught them moral and ethical behavior required of soldiers…they won’t do it.
- we’ve taught them how to manage logistics…they won’t do it.
- we’ve taught them personnel and administrative management…they won’t do it.
- we’ve taught them how to operate tactically…they won’t do it.
- we’ve taught them how to sustain the life support systems on the camp…they won’t do it.
Not very rosy indeed. Sensing points to Arab tribalism as the root problem and hints that it is immutable. That would mean the whole exercise is doomed to failure and we have no hope of creating a western style military culture (or any western style civil cuture for that matter). If that is correct, we should have simply leveled Iraq and Afghanistan and went home. We should be completely out of the nation building business. That means, in the case of Iran, North Korea and Lybia, no diplomacy or nation building on the table, just destroy their infrastructure and ability to wage war and go home. The Scowcroftian paleocons are big fans of this idea. Call it war on the cheap. We need only deploy a carrier group and destroy cities, manufacturing facilities, military bases or whatever.
If you think we're international pariahs now, wait until we give up nation building after we destroy a hostile nation.
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