Bill Roggio (embedded blogger in Fallujah) has a great update on the state of the Iraqi military up on his site. Of particular interest to me was his break down of Iraqi Army failures and successes. I find the contrast between their military and ours fascinating (my comments below). Some excerpts: (Emphasis mine. – GW)
"Iraqi Army Shortcomings
Logistics. The IA logistical system is broken at the battalion, brigade, division and Ministry of Defense levels. Requests for equipment such as batteries, air conditioners, heaters, vests, helmets, and building materials are mostly ignored. Soldiers in some units share helmets or vests to go out on patrol.
…
Pay. Some soldiers and officers haven't been paid in over a year. Some soldiers are talking about leaving the Army if they are not paid soon. The lower ranks strongly suspect senior officers are pocketing their pay. Soldiers that have left the military are also kept on the rolls and their paychecks are often pocketed by officers and ministry officials.
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Leave policy. This is directly related to pay problems, a lack of an enlistment contract, and a non-existent central banking system. As there is no central banking system, soldiers must physically take their paychecks home. They are forced to travel home unarmed (the weapons are needed at the units, and there is fear the soldiers would sell the weapons), and the soldiers become targets for death squads.
Iraqi Army Successes
Tactical Independence. The soldiers are gathering their own intelligence, are planning and executing operations independently. They are able to adjust planning on the fly. An perhaps most importantly, they are independently developing intelligence section at the company level. Counterinsurgency is largely a war of intelligence.
…
Brave. The Iraqi soldiers risk their lives to serve their country, and are taking casualties at rate of about four times that of U.S. military. They walk multiple patrols daily in the dangerous city of Fallujah, as well as run convoys, conduct raids, set up checkpoints, live in exposed outposts within the city and other dangerous tasks."
I have to say that post like Mr. Roggio’s simultaneously warm my heart with the prospects of success for the Iraqi people and cause me a bit of concern over the attitudes of some soldiers in our own military.
A former soldier myself, I know darn well that simply putting on a uniform during wartime doesn’t move you beyond criticism or reproach. Some of the soldiers in my last unit couldn’t even contemplate tolerating this level of hardship in service to their nation (myself included oftentimes).
One factor that contributes mightily to this is that the military (the Army in particular) has been lowering it’s performance and behavior standards for years both in order to keep up troop levels (at the expense of troop quality) and to conform to calls for political correctness from non-military society.
The result is a vastly weakened support Army (the combat Army has done a better job of resisting these changes) contaminated by weaklings, whiners, and “soldiers’ who think that the Army owes them a job no matter how craptastic their performance may be. Many of these soldiers are actually unaware of the true scope of their ineptitude because it has become almost unthinkable for the Army to actually censure or even acknowledge poor performance on paper (perhaps a subject for another post) or in practice.
We as American civilians are greatly fortunate that there are a number of folks out there in the military (HW, CR, EL, SNBS, PS) who struggle on under the burden of other soldier’s monumental stupidity and laziness. I salute their efforts but still call for a cultural shift within the military that is unlikely to come without some serious calamity to precipitate it.
It is worth noting that Mr. Roggio is not supported by the AP, UPI, any newpaper, or new agency. He is entirely suported by donations from his readers. just a thought.
