Nonlethal Targeting Part II

So we had another meeting today to talk about nonlethal targeting, and how being nice to a neighborhood and improving some of the neighborhood's civil capacity can work in your favor in terms of finding bad guys and stopping crime and terrorism.

In a nutshell, the idea we conceived on 1 September went by way of apathy on down the road.

We pretty much had the same meeting with the Brigade Commander as we did on 1 September. We told them back at the first of the month we are in a position to help with some wells (cost about $10,000 each) and perhaps four generators that can power the neighborhood when the city power is inoperable. All the IA had to do was give us grids to where they think the wells should go, and make the plan to put in the wells, and pick up the trash.

The meeting started out with the US Battalion Commander attempting to engage the IA Brigade Commander on nonlethal targeting initiatives. The IA Commander kept steering the conversation back towards names of bad people, and efforts he is making to arrest those responsible for some recent attacks in his area, which falls in the lane of a lethal targeting meeting. Finally, the US Commander posed a directive, pointed question to the IA Commander: Are we going to do this or not?

The IA Commander answered with ambivalence. The US Commander (mustering A LOT of patience) said ok, and then told the IA Commander he was done with the meeting and he left.

I have to wonder if I was an Iraqi guy, and someone offered me free stuff to improve a neighborhood, I would think that would be a good thing to take advantage of. It highlights a couple of things:
1) My experience has told me that Arabs are reactive, mostly because being proactive is too much work and too hard.
2) Arab Pride is raring its head in Iraq. Maybe we are showing them up, and the people know it, and the IA is embarrassed by the US force's capabilities. Today two IA Soldiers got shot by a car at a checkpoint and the car sped off. The IA wanted me to ask my Battalion for cameras at all of the checkpoints. I said, why don't you just train the IA better and teach them to be more alert? The Brigade G2 (Intelligence officer) said the IA soldiers are indisciplined, and not like the US Army. "Your Soldiers are good -- they stay in uniform and have discipline" he said. I almost told him two things (for the record, I don't like this guy and I think he is a sorry officer):
Poor choice #1: "That's why your country keeps losing wars"
Poor choice #2: "Maybe your Soldiers are lazy because your leadership is lazy."

I held my comments and said nothing. But it highlights a point: I really don't think they care, and they are content with the current level of violence in the country, because stopping it and improving the country is too hard. This is a pessimistic statement, but I can't help but think that way. These opinions are also symptoms of a tour that is almost to an end. Events like today's rebuffed opportunity by the IA make me think that way. The only time this country has enjoyed relative stability is when it had a ruthless dictator in charge of it (Saddam).

I don't know what will happen to this country after we leave. I'll talk about some theories in a later entry.

Hope you are well. Take care.
Ron