A Rock and a Hard Place

I'm going to paraphrase a recent exchange concerning a problem I encountered that I'm in the middle of.

The IA recently made a decision to do something they can't support logistically, and are expecting US assistance with. Unfortunately, since these days we are in the business of transferring authority and responsibility to the IA, we aren't allowed to support them logistically any more, and they have to use the Iraqi logistics system, which isn't very user friendly and much harder to use than just asking the Americans.

This is a good policy. For too long US units used logistic capacity and capability to buy influence with the IA. Sometimes we use resources to get the IA to do things they wouldn't normally do-- call it a carrot and stick approach. Most American units will give whatever they have; they think it is the reason we are here, to make the IA more self-sufficient, which is true to a point. Unfortunately, there are unintended consequences to providing assistance, namely they just ask us for stuff instead of using their systems. Here is how my night went:

IA Commander: We need X, y, and X. So are you going to help us with our problem?

Me: Well, have you figured out what you need? How much of x, y and z do you need? Have you measured it out and do you have a plan?

IA Commander: We need a lot of assistance with this problem.

Me: Sure. But if you figure out exactly how much of each you need, you can request it through your channels.

IA Commander: (eye roll)

Me: You know, someday we are going to leave, and you guys are going to have to be self sufficient. You should start using your systems now so your guys are trained on them and know how to use them after we leave.

UNCOMFORTABLE PAUSE

IA Commander: I also need a map. Can I have your map? (I had a map I was using to show him some things)

Me: Saydi (Iraqi for Sir) I can't. The other day I was told I can't give you things any more, in an effort to energize your systems so they can be more efficient. You need to first figure out what you need-- how can you get things if you don't even know the specifics of what it is you need?

IA Commander: The God will provide. You will see.

I was at a loss for words. I often criticize the Western way of planning; we tend to overplan the crap out of things. Our huge staff sections overanalyze the problem, and our unwieldy staff processes are too big to be agile or effective. But this was the complete opposite of the spectrum. "Wing it" is an Iraqi doctrinal principle. Sometimes The God works it out for them. And when it doesn't, they just accept it and move on.

The bad thing is that eventually he will find an American who will say yes.

Take care.
Ron

Ranting on a soap box

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/press-photo-lance-cpl-joshua-bernard-stirs-controversy/story?id=8494094

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32693503/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

Sorry, gotta vent. This news story got me going for a couple of reasons. Two points, one for releasing the photos, one against the media:

I think it is good for the people to know how much the 1% of those who serve in the Military are sacrificing for the other 99%. When you see the young 20-something kid wearing a uniform in the airport, tell them thank you. He or she will tell you it's no big deal, and they will blow it off, but it means more than you will ever know. It would be a better world if we stopped gushing over the Hollywood media attention mongrels and focused our efforts on real heroes. The world would be a better place if all of the high and mighty celebrities clammering for the spotlight (the Gosselins, the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, etc.) would all use some of their power and influence we give to them for good as opposed to wasting it on themselves. You can do something to show you care-- Donate to the USO and the Disabled American Veterans.

Our priorities are wrong. "DJ AM" died. I learned from the news he was a 'famous DJ' who was connected to a lot of celebrities. He lived through a plane crash, but then couldn't cope with life. Poor him, and so what? He died because he was addicted to drugs. What did he do to better his country or the world? He manipulated noise so people could have fun. Corporal Bernard and others like him died fighting the people who crashed planes into buildings in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA. (Note: If you have not yet visited all three of these places yet, you need to do so.) I'm sorry Michael Jackson died. He had some talents, but I don't believe the media should have paid all the attention to his family. During the time span between his death and his burial (25 June - 3 September), American families lost 120 sons, husbands, and brothers (and one woman/mother/daughter/sister) to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan (no women during this particular time span). The US Battalion I am attached to lost four on June 29th. But you didn't hear much about them.

I am not upset the pictures were taken. I am not upset at the photographer-- She was doing her job. I feel for the Bernard family; it should have been their choice to release the pictures, and the media should have honored the family's wishes. At least they waited until after he was buried. The real thing that gets me about this story is how the media makes themselves a part of the story. Somewhere along the way, the focus of this story went from CPL Bernard to the "anguish" the AP editors went through in deciding whether or not to publish the photo. Since when did the media covering a story become more important than the story?? (This is directed at the Anderson Coopers, Geraldo Riveras, and wold Blitzers of the media world.)

I better stop now. Rest in peace, CPL Bernard, and thank you for your service.

Non-Lethal Targeting

So as our Counterinsurgency Doctrine tells us, people are the center of gravity. Occasionally, we will 'target' the people by conducting an operation intended to generate information, or public support, or influence a particular demographic one way or another. These are now called non-lethal operations, or sometimes on a bigger level they are called Stability Operations, and they are a permanent part of our capability as a force. We haven't always done this; in fact when I was a Lieutenant, we used to joke about how we were too good for Operations Other than War as they were called at the time. We now do Stability Operations quite a bit-- mostly because by spending some cash and being careful how you act, it can go a lot longer than a usual shooty shooty operation that often has more consequences than benefits.

In an effort to develop our Iraqi Army (IA) Brigade, we are attempting to get them to try one of these operations, and today we (my US Battalion Commander and I) tried to pitch the idea to the IA Brigade Commander. We were immediately confronted with resistance.

"That's not the Army's job."
"I don't have any assets to do a project like that."
"I don't have money like the Americans do."
"My Division Commander won't let me."

He pretty much thought up a thousand reasons why he couldn't do it, until we explained an example:

Me: "Saydi (Arabic for sir)-- what's your worst neighborhood?"

IA Brigade Commander: "Al Dorito" (fake name)

Me: "Ok, here's what we do. We go into Al Dorito and your soldiers pick up the trash and use your trucks to haul it away. You get Division to bring in some front end loaders from the Engineer Battalion to scoop up the big piles of trash. We bring in some sewage trucks to suck the sewage out of the streets, and we use your water trucks to hose the streets down. The Americans show up with some pallets of bottled water for the IA to pass out, and along with the water they get a flyer inquiring about some bad people we want to know about with a tip line on it to call if they see anything. We put up a big banner of the failed attempted market bombing where your soldiers stopped the woman from detonating the bomb and she blew herself up instead-- we put up a picture of her looking sad in her hospital bed, again with a tip line. We put up some more signs about how all if this was coordinated by the local government, which is working hard to restore services and make things better, and how the terrorists won't do this for you. Your S2s (intelligence officers) are there to work sources and gather information. Get a band to play music."

Bam. Nonlethal targeting explained.

He sat quietly for a few seconds, and when he realized how it isn't nearly as hard as he makes it out to be, he agreed to do it.

Subsequent meetings were scheduled to plan it out, but it looks like it might work. We'll see.

Hope you are well-- take care.
Ron

Ramadan, the 19 August bombings, and other stuff

Sorry for the lack of update all week. No excuse.

The Islamic holiday of Ramadan started on the 22d. Ramadan is a period of fasting and abstainment from sinful things during the day, and festive dinners "breaking of the fast" at night. During the day, nothing can touch the lips: no water, no gum, no food, no cigarettes, nothing, all in sacrifice and honor to God. The time of Ramadan is based off the lunar calendar, so it fluctuates every year when it occurs. It just so happens that this time Ramadan happens during the hottest part of the year, so the Iraqis really don't do much of anything during the day. Nighttime is a different story; they kind of go reverse cycle, and it lasts around a month. They end Ramadan with the Eid al Fitr, which is sort of like Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one. It is an interesting holiday. The only thing comparable to Ramadan in our Christian culture might be lent, but muslims don't have a big blowout "Fat Tuesday" or anything like a Mardi Gras beforehand. To us, it is just another thing we have to work around to get some advising done.

19 August was not a good day in Iraq. It was the day a couple of big bombs went off in Baghdad outside the Ministry of Finance and another building: 75 killed and 500 or so wounded. There were some other blasts in Babil and up north. I got to go to a big meeting in Baghdad at the Baghdad Operations Center (BOC) where the BOC Commander (the equivalent of a US Corps Commander) gave guidance to his Division Commanders. The bombings sort of punched them in the nose, and brought them back down to earth a little bit, as after 30 June the Iraqi Security forces (ISF) sort of got a little big for their britches. What was interesting about the bombings and their reaction is that they did not ask for assistance, and they handled events on their own.

With regards to the effects of the bombings, the country didn't (or hasn't yet) death-spiraled into chaos and sectarian violence again. Politically they are handling things moderately well; there is much jockeying for power, they aren't doing much about fixing a lot of the problems, but the government is holding together, even with the recent death of prominent Shiite Abdul Aziz Al Hakim (which of course involves another pilgrimage south to Karbala and Najaf, down the road right outside our compound...). The January elections for Prime Minister will be the next decisive point for the Government of Iraq (GOI).

I'm reading an interesting book called the American Patriot's Handbook. It is a collection of essays and important documents in US history: Stuff like Patrick Henry's 'give me liberty or give me death' speech, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other documents spanning our 230 years of independence. Every time I get frustrated with the GOI, their inefficiency, the infighting, and general madness, I try to remember Iraq is a country that is simultaneously establishing its sovereignty, enduring an insurgency, a civil war, a civil rights movement, establishing a government, and repelling foreign invaders, all in about six years. We experienced all of these things too, but we did it over the course of 230+ years. It gives hope to think that if they can make it past this, maybe they will make it.

I have some other stuff about how the US does Targeting and how we are trying to teach this convoluted square peg process to the round hole Iraqi Army, but I'll save it for later.

Hope you are well-- take care.
Ron

Logistics:

Holy crap, it's hot...

Kinda warm this week.

With regards to the uptick in violence, it is interesting to see the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Government reaction. The bombs in Baghdad and Babil killed over 100 and injured over 700 all total. Iraq got punched in the nose. Lots of theories abound over who did it. Most point to Al Qaeda, others point to political parties that are Maliki's rivals, trying to show the Government is incapable of providing security and essential services for the people. But, to the Government's credit and the Army's credit, they detained 11 high ranking military officials who were responsible for the lax security.

Wow, accountability in Government. How novel. Wonder if you'd ever see that in America.

I watched my Iraqi Brigade Commander hold a meeting with his Battalion Commanders last night. I had a laundry list of recommendations to pose to him to improve security, but I waited until after the meeting to discuss the issues with him. As he spoke with his commanders, he was deliberate, precise, and relevant. One by one he made all of the same comments I would have. He closed the meeting with his intent to execute over 200 warrants for bad guys in the next two days. They started at 5am this morning.

It was good to observe. Maybe I am jaded, or too attached to the unit, having been here for 10 months, but in our area the IA seems very capable. I hope it stays that way.

Ramadan starts tomorrow. That should be interesting.

Hope you are well-- take care.

Ron

Amazing What You Learn in Iraq

An Electrical Power System has four components: A generation station, a bunch of transmission station, some distribution sub-stations, and then loads. At each station, electricity is stepped up or down to move or distribute power accordingly. Normal power grip operation is where generation exceeds demand, and generation is matched to load.

Iraq's power is pushed in different kilo voltages: 400kv, 132kv, 33kv, 11kv. Iraq can generate power at the 400 - 132kv, but the current problem with power in Iraq is from the 11kv down to the loads where power is reduced from 11kv to 240 volts and the end user at commercial and residential loads, where demand far exceeds current capacity. Further complicating the problem is power theft, people tapping into lines on the sides trying to get by in the face of power outages, further overloading the grid.

Electricity is a civil service, a benefit to the people that the insurgent can't provide. It is the biggest gripe of the people in our area. No electricity means I only get power for two hours a day, so I can't run my AC unit in my house, so I get all irritated at the Government. I also can't run my refrigerator, and then all my food goes bad. Less than 12 hours of continuous power also means the pumps that supply water to the irrigation canals don't run and not enough water is pumped from the Euphrades, which means my crops die from lack of water, so then I can't sell my vegetables in the market or grow food for my livestock (and they need water to drink too). No electricity also means that a local factory can't operate at capacity, so it has to let people go, and unemployment goes up. So I get mad at the Government, and I start listening to crazy guys talk about how we should revert to 'traditional' Islam where we flog women for going out uncovered, schools are razed for teaching 'impure' things like reading and writing, and men in the market get their hands chopped off for mixing tomatoes and cucumbers in the market (one is female, the other is male, and in 'traditional Islam' they say it is unholy to mix male things with female things).

Counterinsurgency Doctrine tells us that people are the center of gravity. If the people are on your side, they will turn on the insurgent and support Government, as it does a better job of taking care of me than the insurgent does. So electricity is an important part of establishing a legitimate Government. The Brigade I am attached to figured out that if we can augment production at the distribution level (33kv - 11kv) with additional generators, lines, transformers, switch gear, isolator switches, and production and relay equipment, we can provide 12 hours of continuous power to those regions which currently don't have it. They plan to spend a bunch of money on power generation in our area in the coming days. The deal is that whatever we buy has to be maintained by the Ministry of Electricty, which apparently they have agreed to support.

Twelve hours of power equals running water pumps which irrigate fields, ACs that work when it's 118 outside, and refrigerators that actually refrigerate, which hopefully makes people happy and more confident in the Government, which makes Iraq more stable.

Too easy, right?

Ron

Intense Boredom

I suppose being bored here is good. That means nothing bad is happening. But it sure is boring. There really isn't much to write about that hasn't already been said. Not sure if that is because I'm just not noticing anything new because of the same routine, or if it is because of the Security Agreement, or what. But we are bored. And we still have 60 or so days left.

We do chase the boogey man a lot. I think sometimes we manufacture an enemy to give the big staffs something to do. Not everything in Iraq is perfect; far from it actually, but it is improving. More importantly, it's not our problem anymore, and the Iraqis are slowly figuring this out. The IA is realizing we will one day leave, and they are trying to bleed us dry of everything. "When you leave, will you take ?" The 'Gimme Gimme' bus is in station, and the IA is trying to fill it up. Sadly, every time a US unit gives them something (fuel, water, parts, etc) we are enabling the addiction. You do sort of feel sorry for them. But then again, they had their chance to win. And they lost.

I have no doubt we will leave a bunch of stuff behind, but that's for somebody smarter than me to figure out. Until then, I'll make sure we lock everything up...

Things should pick up this week. And Ramadan is coming up, too.

Hope you are well- take care.
Ron