From the beginning of this mess, I always thought about the South Vietnamese government policy of rewarding incompetence and punishing success in the field during the war. The reasoning was simple: if they were successful in the field, the US would go away and take their money with them. (Think Afghanistan after the Soviets lost, among others.) The way the administration has thrown money around over there without normal accountability, it should come as no surprise that the results are pathetic. After just hearing a few days ago about a soldier who was active in this training, none of this come as a surprise.
In an assessment for a military journal, a U.S. Army officer who advised Iraqi troops concludes the goal of having Iraq control its security "will exceed" the new army's capability "for some time to come."Not encouraging news and I can't imagine this changing any time soon. I still want to hear why US troops are facing Iraqi insurgents who are using equipment given to the Iraqi military. Why do Americans have to fight against equipment that was funded by American tax payers? What the hell is going on? Is anyone ever accountable or does that only apply to botched jokes?
In an article for Military Review, Lt. Col. Carl D. Grunow wrote that "without steadfast American support, these officers and soldiers will likely give up and consider the entire effort a lost cause."
Grunow recounted his experience of 12 months as the senior adviser to an Iraqi army armored brigade in Taji, north of Baghdad. His stint ended in June. The article in the July-August issue of Military Review is titled "Advising Iraqis: Building the Iraqi Army."
Grunow found and grappled with several problems during his experience.
One was what he called the Iraqi "death blossom," in which any enemy attack on the soldiers "provokes the average Iraqi soldier to empty his 30-round magazine and fire whatever belt of ammunition happens to be in his machine gun."
"Ninety percent of the time, there is no target, and the soldiers always agree that this is extremely dangerous, in addition to being a grievous waste of ammunition. But they continue to do it."
If Bush wants to talk about the Iraq and who is showing disrespect towards the military, fine, let's talk and let's start here. Why did Bush, Cheney and Rummy create such a bloody mess? Why are they unwilling and unable to show any positive results? Why are they uninterested in changing failed policy? Why do they not care about accountability in Iraq? Why are Americans fighting against well-equipped insurgents who use American provided equipment? Let's have some answers, since Bush wants to talk about Iraq.
