Kingdom of Suck

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
That's Mosul



Great email posted on OSS: http://tinyurl.com/xwvk



"The author, Lucian Truscott, is the son of a relatively famous World War II General. He's a West Point Grad who rebelled after commissioning and a tour of Viet Nam, leaving the Army as a LT or CPT."



It's a super little email detailing conditions in Iraq.



Some great excerpts:



Quote:

I had one of the most talented senior officers in the U.S. Army (who will go nameless here for obvious reasons) tell me last night that every order they receive is delivered with next November in mind, so there is little doubt at and near the top about what's really going on over here. The resentment in the ranks toward the civilian "leadership" down in Baghdad and back in Washington is palpable.

The senior officer described the ongoing fight between the two forces at work -- no matter how you describe them -- Bremer v. Sanchez, state v. defense, etc etc -- as "the Kabuki dance." He called one of the senior CPA civilians up here in Mosul "a Bremer plant," and I won't even go into what he had to say about Bechtel and Kellogg Brown and Root...but I recall the word chickenshit being used.



...



With respect to The Harper's Story, I've got more stuff than can fit in the magazine. This war isn't badly reported -- it's not reported at all. I sat down for 3 hours with the commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 101st last night -- he's a tall, bald, charismatic guy everyone says will be Chief of Staff by the time he's 50 -- and he uncorked before I even said a word.



From the first sentence out of his mouth, he was laying things bare. We walked outside his CP and were standing on a little road overlooking a nice stretch of the Tigris, and I told him I would quote him by name very judiciously, and he said something like, I know you know what you're doing,

and I trust you. What he told me would have him on a plane to Washington tomorrow. These guys are PISSED OFF, even though they're proud of what they've done.

But of course, what they're proud of is stuff they were never told to do, stuff they made up as they went along. This guy is the King of Mosul, and even the local hoo-haa sheiks and muchtars treat him that way, and he'll be going home in February, and he'll be replaced by a clueless guy who is

already involved in turf battles with another colonel and a brigadier general over who's got the biggest dick and who will occupy the biggest Saddam palace.



....



My $$$$ing Cipro bill alone would be enough to put me in the poorhouse if I didn't have WGA health insurance. They've got bugs and intestinal worms and the smoke of burning, stinking garbage heaps out the window and piles of

human shit, donkey shit, and goat and sheep shit in the street I have walked through every goddamned day that would quite literally make you puke, not to mention the nightly pop-pop-pop of AKs down the alley across

the street. I wouldn't wish this place on a CAA agent, and you can imagine what I think of them...



Gives a nice counter to the palace reporters.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    northgatenorthgate Posts: 4,461member
    Yes. My best friend whom I consider a brother has returned from his tour of duty in Iraq. He is a reservist who was pulled from his home, his job, his wife and his newborn son to serve in Baghdad. He trained local Iraqi's how to be police officers.



    He says that everything is completely FUBAR'd over there. Not only is there infighting between commanders, but there's infighting between Army and Marines. No one knows what the mission is anymore. Communication in the age of digital technology doesn't work. The communication infrastructure is so fractured that no one is really using it.



    But, the problems are much bigger than what is reported on CNN. There's a huge cultural problem between the soldiers forced to train the new officers and the people themselves. The soldier's are trying to enforce western-style policing guidelines. However, the Iraqi's want to apply Islamic doctrine to their policing. Example: my friend told them that they needed to arrest a husband for beating his wife almost to death. The new Iraqi policemen didn't want to arrest him because the Koran says a husband has a right to beat his wife.



    The other problem they're having over there is with the soldier's themselves. You cannot expect a young 19 year old soldier to instantly become a training officer. They're trying. But it's not working. A soldier and someone who understands how to train cops are two separate things. First, these young soldiers do not have the patience to train individuals who don't speak English, don't understand westernized laws and refuse to follow orders because of conflicts with their religious faith.



    Once you finally have a few police officers finally trained, the minute they put them on the street they instantly resort to taking bribes and falling back into old, Saddam-style behavior. De-programming 35 years of dictatorial rule is proving far more challenging than anyone could've possibly imagined.



    But, hey, CNN showed a new school opening on the news the other day. There were six students in class. Six. In a city with a million children, only six were present. Yeah, that's news alright. Looks like the Communist News Network is toeing the Bush line quite nicely.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    giantgiant Posts: 6,041member
    And guess one of the few countries best suited to train a national police force?



    I give you a clue: France.



    Oh well.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Northgate

    The soldier's are trying to enforce western-style policing guidelines. However, the Iraqi's want to apply Islamic doctrine to their policing. Example: my friend told them that they needed to arrest a husband for beating his wife almost to death. The new Iraqi policemen didn't want to arrest him because the Koran says a husband has a right to beat his wife.



    This is a complete digression from the thread, but do we really have to pretend to "respect" this kind of thinking? Who cares if it's "cultural" or part of Islamic "law" when it's just barbaric?



    As far as the thread: I think even the pro-war folk have to admit that everyone's fears have come true: the US simply had no thought-out plan for the aftermath of the war. It's almost a Catch 22 now: staying keeps the FUBAR status quo, if you leave, you leave the place in the anarchy of your own making. There's still a chance to get the whole thing on track again, but it gets much harder every day. At some point, your chances are nil.
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