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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War / Mission Improbable

Mission Improbable

by John Cole|  June 10, 20051:18 pm| 19 Comments

This post is in: War

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I am sure the usual suspects are going to stroke out over this piece:

The reconstruction of Iraq’s security forces is the prerequisite for an American withdrawal from Iraq. But as the Bush administration extols the continuing progress of the new Iraqi army, the project in Baiji, a desolate oil town at a strategic crossroads in northern Iraq, demonstrates the immense challenges of building an army from scratch in the middle of a bloody insurgency.

Charlie Company disintegrated once after its commander was killed by a car bomb in December. And members of the unit were threatening to quit en masse this week over complaints that ranged from dismal living conditions to insurgent threats. Across a vast cultural divide, language is just one impediment. Young Iraqi soldiers, ill-equipped and drawn from a disenchanted Sunni Arab minority, say they are not even sure what they are fighting for. They complain bitterly that their American mentors don’t respect them.

In fact, the Americans don’t: Frustrated U.S. soldiers question the Iraqis’ courage, discipline and dedication and wonder whether they will ever be able to fight on their own, much less reach the U.S. military’s goal of operating independently by the fall.

“I know the party line. You know, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, five-star generals, four-star generals, President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld: The Iraqis will be ready in whatever time period,” said 1st Lt. Kenrick Cato, 34, of Long Island, N.Y., the executive officer of McGovern’s company, who sold his share in a database firm to join the military full time after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “But from the ground, I can say with certainty they won’t be ready before I leave. And I know I’ll be back in Iraq, probably in three or four years. And I don’t think they’ll be ready then.”

Damn media. And Cato should be tried for treason.

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Reader Interactions

19Comments

  1. 1.

    Rick

    June 10, 2005 at 1:30 pm

    The “insurgents,” OTOH, are 10′ tall.

    Cordially…

  2. 2.

    Richard Bottoms

    June 10, 2005 at 1:42 pm

    >The “insurgents,” OTOH, are 10′ >tall.

    As long as they can see over the steering wheel of a car that has a bomb in the trunk it doesn’t matter how tall they are now does it?

    BTW, those of us who said wait until you can go into Iraq with a large enough force would like to quote Rush Limbaugh:

    “See, I told you so.”

  3. 3.

    Mike S

    June 10, 2005 at 1:51 pm

    You can practically hear the despair from Cato.

    It also helps that our own “contractors” are firing on our troops and Iraqi civilians. I can’t think of a better way to win the hearts and minds, not to mention get more Americans to sign u for a $20k job, than having people making $100k+ firing on them.

    WASHINGTON

  4. 4.

    Mikey

    June 10, 2005 at 1:56 pm

    IIRC, the last five-star general was Omar Bradley. He died in 1981. Nit-picky, but if the guy gets that wrong, is his opinion just frustration or a considered one?

  5. 5.

    Mikey

    June 10, 2005 at 1:57 pm

    IIRC, the last five-star general was Omar Bradley. He died in 1981. Nit-picky, but if the guy gets that wrong, is his opinion just frustration or a considered one?

  6. 6.

    sean

    June 10, 2005 at 1:57 pm

    as one who lives on the island, i would just like to say that NO ONE is from “Long Island, N.Y.”. and wherever on the island Lt. Cato is from, i hope he returns safely.

  7. 7.

    Tim F

    June 10, 2005 at 1:57 pm

    Funny how “Ricky” also used to end his posts with too-cute little salutations. Certainly a coincidence. You don’t have a mid-level government job in DC, right “Rick?”

  8. 8.

    Mikey

    June 10, 2005 at 1:58 pm

    Sorry about the double-posting, but the error message did say to post again.

  9. 9.

    brenda

    June 10, 2005 at 2:23 pm

    The central premise of Apocalypse Now was that the Brandon character (I forget the name in the screenplay) was a rogue commander who had to taken out. With extreme prejudice. But….. he was effective and the generals were not and they lost the war.

    So an interesting question comes to my mind. Does the very structure of the modern military prevent it from effectively waging war against insurgents and gorilla armies?

    We’re going to lose this one, just like ‘nam or somalia. For the same reasons too. We were’nt wanted there in the first place.

  10. 10.

    caroline

    June 10, 2005 at 3:13 pm

    Does the very structure of the modern military prevent it from effectively waging war against insurgents and gorilla armies?

    As I understand it, this is pretty much spot on.

  11. 11.

    Jim Henley

    June 10, 2005 at 3:22 pm

    LT Cato makes despairing comments. The Cato INSTITUTE opposed the war. What more evidence of media bias do you need? Why doesn’t the Post talk to Captain AEI or Major Heritage for balance, huh?

  12. 12.

    Bob Munck

    June 10, 2005 at 3:45 pm

    The “Brandon character” in Apocalypse Now? Do you mean Col Kurtz, he of the same name as his prototype in Heart of Darkness? (And played by Brando.) Lordy, lordy, what are they teaching the kids these days?

  13. 13.

    gratefulcub

    June 10, 2005 at 4:16 pm

  14. 14.

    Rick

    June 10, 2005 at 4:28 pm

    My subtle point is the new Iraqi recruits may be raw, but the native and foreign “insurgents” aren’t exactly Delta Force either.

    Tim, I live in DC, but no. And “Ricky” was from what blog? It’s been my affectation since 1993 on the Prodigy politics bulletin-board.

    If you don’t like it, then for you, just this once:

    Up yours…

  15. 15.

    Nash

    June 10, 2005 at 4:36 pm

    Of course, Rick says “fu” in the most cordial way possible.

    My subtle point is the new Iraqi recruits may be raw, but the native and foreign “insurgents” aren’t exactly Delta Force either.

    Subtul? Not hardly. But seriously flawed if the insurgents train up faster than the Iraqi recruits–you remember, those 120,000 US-trained Iraqi recruits. Surely it’s a much larger effective force level now. Stepping in every day to replace American forces, right?

    realistically,

  16. 16.

    Rick

    June 10, 2005 at 5:00 pm

    Nash,

    Train up? They are bomb-makers, not assault infantry. That’s why they blow up oil pipelines and trucks, mosques and police stations, but get rolled up whenever they’re brought to bay. Like the Israelis have been doing for 57 years.

    Bringing them to bay is the hard part.

    These in-depth WaPo reporters spent all of three days on this searching analysis, BTW. But they are perceptive, trained observers and analysts, as compared with the numerous milbloggers, who are just more of Rummy’s warmongers.

    The Iraqi cadres are newly formed and inexperienced, and the Arab military tradition isn’t very imposing since around 1200 A.D., except as the muscle for police states, so as long as they make some progress over the usual Arab Legion rabbles seen in ’48, ’56, ’67 and ’73, I’m contented. I mean, we’ve been carrying the Europeans for decades.

    And you know something about conflict? Sometimes, the other guys makes plans, and wins a few.

    Oh, woe! Oh, quagmire!

    Cordially…

  17. 17.

    Nash

    June 10, 2005 at 7:12 pm

    They are bomb-makers, not assault infantry. That’s why they blow up oil pipelines and trucks, mosques and police stations

    Yeah, don’t you just hate it when they don’t play by your rules of engagement?

    Oh, woe! Oh, quagmire!

    Au contraire, buzzard breath. A quagmire is something you are stuck in. We ain’t stuck in this, except unless the ruling party wants us to be. That’s according to you–since you maintained the other party just wanted to cut and run like sheep

    So, it’s your call. Quagmire if you want it to be. We can’t stop you. Have fun.

  18. 18.

    Richard Bottoms

    June 10, 2005 at 7:17 pm

    >My subtle point is the new Iraqi >recruits may be raw, but the >native and foreign “insurgents” >aren’t exactly Delta Force >either.

    They don’t have to be. Frankly all they need is a thousand or so guys willing to blow themselves up two or three at a time, every day for the next 18 months or so.

    I doubt we will have to get too far from 3,000 US casualties before this thing crumbles.

    What is amazing is Rumsfeld’s insistance that Iraq’s just about under control.

    Our guys can’t come home until the Iraqi Army can manage a standup fight. That’s two or three years away at best.

    An then there’s this:

    In May, the regular Army lowered its recruiting goal to 6,700 and still missed it by 25 percent, while the Reserve missed its monthly goal by 18 percent and the Guard fell 29 percent short.

    The Pentagon has relied heavily on part-time soldiers from the Army Guard and Reserve to maintain troop levels in Iraq, where America has 139,000 troops, and Afghanistan, where it has 19,000.

    http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10648244.htm

  19. 19.

    Rick

    June 10, 2005 at 11:05 pm

    Richard,

    Who or what will crumble? I predict the Sunni bitter-enders, and the Ba’ath regime in Syria.

    Cordially…

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