Patience and baby steps

"It is difficult to keep quiet when everything is being done wrong. But the less you lose your temper, the greater the advantage. Also then you will not go mad yourself."
--Lawrence of Arabia

This pretty much sums up the week. I have been trying to get the Brigade to conduct a staff meeting to present information to the commander in order to help him make informed decisions, as opposed to decisions made on a whim. Last week, we did one for the staff, sort of a show of 'what right looks like,' but I feared it was an American solution, filled with Powerpoint slides and a Led Zepplin Laser Light Show, imposed upon an Iraqi problem. Nevertheless, I continued to engage my counterpart, and I talked the meeting up throughout the week as a good way for him to help see himself and his organization. He tacitly agreed to do it.

The meeting was scheduled for Saturday evening at 8:00. At 7:50 my team and I walked into the room where they usually hold meetings, and there were 1-2 lower ranking IA guys watching soccer (Saudi Arabia vs Oman; Oman won). No computer set up, no projector anywhere in sight. No other officers. We waited. More officers ambled in, fairly aimlessly, and milling about. At exactly 8:00, the Brigade Commander came in to find 2/3 of the staff there, no computer and no projector.

I don't speak Arabic; I know a few phrases, and I can pick up on a few words as they are being spoken, but last night I didn't need to know the language to understand how pissed the Brigade Commander was, upon finding the brief not ready. A flurry of activity ensued, the Brigade Commander began chain smoking, and suddenly a computer and a projector appeared. The IA Lieutenant Colonel asked to use our computer, as his "no work." We troubleshot it, and after plugging it in, it worked fine. They couldn't get the right slides to come up; we noodled around the Arabic version of Powerpoint and got them going.

Next came the slide shows; most sections had them, but none were standardized. Powerpoint or computer skills in general are not a honed skill in the Iraqi Army. But they muddled through it. My guys were in the back, listening to the briefs via two of our interpreters, cringing, but in a strange, goofy, awkward by American standards Iraqi kind of way, they made it happen. The Brigade Commander was engaged, asking questions, chain smoking some more, and providing direction as it went on. Overall, it was a success, he saw the utility of having a meeting to help him see himself.

It was an uncomfortable experience for me. By American standards, it was a complete train wreck, and I didn't want to see them fail in front of their commander. Throughout, I was climbing up the back of my chair with my butt cheeks. It was all I could do to not jump in and try to fix the problems. Afterwards I equated it to a moment I experienced when my daughter was playing soccer ona rec team, and I was "That Dad" screaming from the sidelines, overpowering the coach, and pretty much messing up the whole game by giving directions to my daughter as opposed to her listening to the coach and letting the game unfold. If we ever want to go home, we have to let them take the helm, and we have to let them fail.

The next one is scheduled for next Saturday at 7:00.

Insh'allah.

Hope you are well, and thanks for reading.
Ron