The greedy battle for Iraq’s ‘Hearts And Minds’

[Steve the Planner]

Ok, so I stuck my neck out in a more public space: Foreign Policy.

So the good, the bad, and the public has said their piece.

Now, for the real audience, and the many more things I can always learn from you.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...en_%20donnelly

[jmm99]

StP - it told your story following your outline and not Van Buren's - and you write well for a Mick.

BTW: Kelley Vlahos has continued to beat the political polemic drum over at Anti-war, Who’s Afraid of Peter Van Buren’s Book?

She is delivering red meat to those who agree with her - typical of what passes for political discussion today. The bottom line is "if you're not with us, you're against us."

Regards

Mike

[Ken White]

StP - it told your story following your outline and not Van Buren's - and you write well for a Mick.

Ah sure and ye all write and speak well, it's the drinkin' y'see that's kept the Emerald Isle and her sons from rulin' the world...

Great job, Steve. BZ, Three thumbs up (I'll borrow one somewhere...).

[Steve the Planner]

Scouse by birth mate, but we are from Wexford and IoM (Last visited for the thousandth anniversary of parliament (Tynwald, 1979)).

Does alcohol fuel the pen more than genes?

Somebody sent comments from the PVB website---apparently I am a "has-been contractor" from Iraq.

I thought that when I was sworn in on the steps of the State Department's main hall, and they issued me a Diplo Passport, that maybe I was a little more than just one a contractor. What did I know?

PS: Helped to have Tom Ricks as pro bono editor/press agent.

Here's the part I think I learned from that cathartic exercise:

1. Rumsfeld's Pentagon could never have ended the war, nor could State as it was.
2. War has three parts: Beginning, middle and end, each of which is a separate part that somebody has to go and do.
3. Iraq was surprisingly well resources with civilian expertise, via the 2008 civilian surge, if and when it was used.
4. The military in 2008 became committed and synchronized to end the war (much more than many recognize), and they were an (the?) essential factor (contrary to the myth that the military cannot produce peace).
5. Regardless of the military aspects, the Surge was essential to create the conditions for the end, which effectively occurred with the execution of the SOFA.
6. Without those 2008 combined successes (civ/mil/Iraq turnover), we would still be debating the troop deployments for next year.
7. You did not have to be pro-iraq war to be pro-iraq end of war (the 2007/8 part).
8. Only the Iraqis can make peace with themselves, create a future.
9. These factors may not be applicable to Afghanistan, which is a different problem set.

[Steve the Planner]

Peter van Buren and his Wemeantwell.com website just removed a series of defamatory comments about me with an email from him advising me to "Chill out" Buddy.

Code for: "Wink.Wink. I am just trying to hype my book."

Beyond that, a local Iraqi GIS poster to his site wrote in to say that the agencies I identified had nothing to do with GIS in Iraq. The real "Lions of Iraq GIS' were Mr. Duane, Mr. Moko and Mr. Sam.

Note that each was an employee of RTI, a prime "contractor" of USAID, who ran the very effective GIS local-implementation program (LPG I, II and III) which Peter's poster experienced through site visits in 2008 by those very "lions" he named (who much appreciated his comments when I passed them on).

When not on site, they were back in Baghdad with the very large combined military/civilian/US/Iraqi team making it happen. They truly were "lions" of getting GIS out to the provinces in 2008.

Wait a minute: Effective "contractors" as "lions" of civilian reconstruction doing marvelous work in Iraq?

Doesn't that run directly contrary to Peter Van Buren's supposed thesis of "We Meant Well"?

(Wink. Wink. Just hypin' his book, buddy!)

Maybe he will send some of his profits to the many civilian "contractors" killed in Iraq (see Tom Rick's prior coverage of the many "contractors" who died in Iraq)? (Wink, Wink. Buddy)

[jmm99]

Well, Steve, you're "nerdy" and "albeit not as clever" as PvB (link). I think you're winning.

Regards

Mike

[Steve the Planner]

Mike:

Nerdy and boring is almost nerdy and boring of itself. No problem with opinion. I think I have had, and (perhaps) shared that and much worse on SWJ.

The other stuff is gone, so, I guess I am winning a little bit.

Fortunately, none of us on this site (that I know of) is a large publishing house trying to promote a best seller on someone's back.

But, it is that old marketing saw: Good Press, Bad Press----just so he sells his books. That doesn't change.