Rapid Personnel Shifts Hinder U.S. Efforts to Rebuild Iraq

17. Nov. Los Angeles Times - Rapid Personnel Shifts Hinder U.S. Efforts to Rebuild Iraq.

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The rapid turnover of American officials in Iraq has slowed efforts to rebuild the country, disrupted key relationships with Iraqis and led to frequent and abrupt shifts in U.S. policy, current and former government officials say.

Between July and September, all six U.S. agencies involved in the reconstruction effort lost all or some of their senior staff, according to an auditor appointed by Congress. Also, diplomats and military leaders have been rotated in and out of the strife-torn nation at swift intervals, complicating the U.S. effort, critics say...

...the result is "institutional amnesia," said Michael Rubin, a former political advisor to the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, or CPA, which governed Iraq for more than a year after the U.S. invasion. "It undercuts us tremendously...

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There are few times in the history of conflict that willingly removing seasoned leaders and troops from the field leads to quick victory. This is the subject of an article I'm writing for a professional military journal and as a book topic.

It is even worse in an insurgency to purposefully disrupt relationships between the coalition and the Iraqi's. Our Grandfathers spent the duration in the box during WWII, when we tried 365 and out in Vietnam it was a faliure. I spent 596 days deployed in the last three years but not more than eight months in any one place. It takes six months to just get past hello in most tribal or clan based populations.