Working the ISF

This is one of those I’m so tired posts I shouldn’t be writing it, but when even Brittany demands something new to read (my fan base really LOVES me), I guess its time for an update.

First, I’ve been meaning to respond to all the negative publicity that this war is getting from certain left-leaning liberals. You know who you are, please stand up and raise your left hand. I read the papers and think, damnit! I should write a letter to the editor and give them what for and who’s who, but then I’d have to keep writing back and forth and getting into the forums which take time and I don’t have that kind of time. So, before I post the Thanksgiving pictures (hello it’s almost Christmas), maybe it’s time to tell people what we’re doing over here.

We’re building an Army. From scratch. And we’re doing it really, really fast because that’s what congress and the American public wants. And we’re trying really hard because nobody over here wants to stay here and nobody from home wants us to stay here either. So, we’re building an Army as fast as we can to get the hell out.

But, we’re not using anybody from the old army because they were not invited to apply. That makes it doubly hard. We’ve come to regret that decision and they’re now letting some of them back in. That’s key. There’s so much institutional knowledge in any organization that if you truly start from scratch it takes generations to catch up.

We’ve had Iraqi soldiers show up for units that hadn’t even been to boot camp, but they show up and our embedded U.S. trainers teach them how to march, put on the uniform, the whole bit. That takes time. We’re building Infantry Divisions (not too much Armor please, we don’t want to come back and face tanks) in order for them to stand up and fight the insurgents.

The previous US General here had the task of building the Army which he did. He built divisions very quickly and got them up and running but he didn’t create the supply side to support them. That’s what we’re doing. We’re the supply and services people.

We’re designing how to get theater level supplies to the Iraqi Security Forces, the ISF. Theater supplies mean ALL the boots an Army needs, the clothes, all the food, the water, the bullets, the trucks, the parts, the gas, the medical supplies…everything an army needs to move, shoot and communicate. You can stand up all the Divisions you want, but an army moves on its stomach and right now…them hungry. That’s our challenge, how to get the Iraqi army a supply system they can use and that will survive when we leave.

I went to a meeting this week that included coalition forces, Australian, British and we’re talking at a high level how this concept should work for the Iraqi’s. It’s very interesting and truly a national concept. The deal is, the U.S. Army knows how to do it, we’ve been doing it for centuries. The coalition knows how to do it, too. But today we’re so automated; we’ve reduced the number of bodies that support our supply system. But we can’t do that with the Iraqi’s, they don’t have computers, they don’t have the training or the schools. We’re not going to give them our systems, so today we control most of their supplies and their systems. There are suggestions that we just leave and throw the keys to the gate over our shoulder as we run out of the country. But to do a good job it’s just going to take time, and training.

Now, the bad news. In some areas, if the ISF is caught outside the protective forces surrounding them, they're executed. They usually try and kill new people joining units to discourage the community they’re recruiting from. It works. We’ve found Army soldiers on leave rounded up and killed by insurgents. We’ve had villages turn away the ISF who came to protect them because the previous ISF (during Saddam’s reign) killed them; those uniforms can still retain terrible memories. Sometimes we’ve moved units with Kurds in them to Shia area’s because locals could be recognized and families murdered. In the same breath, there are stories about citizens turning in insurgents or people hanging around that the locals don’t recognize and they turn them in to us. That’s the good news and that’s happening more and more.

By and large, I really couldn’t be prouder of the U.S. and coalition forces that have the day to day contact with the Iraqi’s. It’s a professional force and the average Iraqi has come to trust the U.S. flag and to support us, I’m convinced of that. You don’t see a lot of the good news, but we see it over here. It’s the changes that have come about over the couple of years we’ve been here, on the roads and in the cities. Yes there are pockets where we don’t venture without a lot of firepower but you could say the same thing for parts of Detroit I would imagine, no? It's working but it's not going to be done next week. We'll be here for another couple of years at least.

There is a strange part to all of this. As I’m walking in the IZ, downtown Baghdad’s green zone, there are civilians working as contractors or for the State Department, embassy personnel in suits and dresses going about their business like any other denizens in a big city, but they’re all packing a weapon. It just strikes me in the weirdest way like you could be walking into an elevator at Wells Fargo and the lady in the suit next to you has a little snub nose in the small of her back with the very latest Gucci holster. It’s a bit surreal for me, but possibly a fashion trend we could export to the states? Anyone?

Here's another little tidbit. I was flying home Tuesday and both pilots were crusty old CW4’s with a combined 70 years of experience between them. Both were pushing 60 and both had spent way too much time at the dessert bar. We took off and started to head the wrong direction out of town until the whipper-snapper in the second helo turned them around. I had found an extra head set and was listening in on the cockpit chatter, laughing all the way home. One of these guys had pulled two tours in Vietnam. There are these kind of humorous times here as well. This was like sitting on the porch talking about the old war with Uncle Ed, but Uncle Ed was at the controls of a blackhawk helicopter flying low and fast over Baghdad and you were holding on very hard with your life in their hands...

So we’re very pretty busy here. I don’t get a chance to sit in Saddam’s chair very often and eat bonbon’s. The days start early and the requirements make the days go by pretty fast. Here it is Friday again and another weekend facing me, woo hoo! what to do, what to do… (That was a joke, we don’t get weekends off)

Love to all and thanks for all the well wishes we get over here, your support for our troops is invaluable…