Security Sector Reform SSR & FID (Catch All)

[Surferbeetle]

Rob,

Mosul was a very interesting experience for me. Security Forces and the Judiciary were hot topics resource-wise and politically during my tour. Some of my friends with police and corrections backgrounds were very involved with providing training, getting uniforms and equipment, and seeing if existing facilities could benefit from the application of US standards. Some of my attorney friends worked on capacity building with the local populace of attorneys. DOS was working on good governance in Mosul during this time as well. The grand re-opening of the judicial complex in the fall of '03 (not too far from the water & sewer departments - just around the corner in fact) was a kind of nexus for many different nation-building/stability practitioners and it sounds like we wrestled with the same issues that you did.

I often found that it was best to keep an eye out when dealing with local security forces. The Facilities Protection Service seemed to be underpaid, undertrained, and under-armed at the time, which lead to some 'interesting' situations for us. I didn't see too much of the local police except around the mayor's office, which I felt was a very dangerous area to be in. I would contrast this with my visits to Kurdistan, their police would be directing traffic among other things.

My reading on Vietnamization since I got back, and other topics, has me convinced that there is much to learn from history. I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts that Alistair Horne, in his book A Savage War of Peace (ISBN 978-1-59017-218-6) mentions that over 4,000 Kepi's Bleu or Special Administration Section Officers were deployed in Algeria. Not all of these guys acquitted themselves honorably but some of their tactics (to include functional arabic language skills) are an interesting COIN case-study about possible tactics for some of the problems we face. A google-drive-by on this subject turns up some French references and perhaps your French is better than mine; I would be interested to learn more about these guys.

Regards,

Steve

[John T. Fishel]

Steve, there is a lot of good stuff on El Sal during the war (and a lot of bad). El Salvador at War: An Oral History by Max Manwaring and Court Prisk (NDU Press) is excellent. Cynthia McClintock did a comparative book on El Sal and peru which is good. Perhaps, the best short piece is chapter 7 of Max and my Uncomfortable Wars Revisited (OU Press 2006) which also uses the Peru/El Sal comparison. Post War El Sal did a good job of incorporating the FMLN into the socio-political fabric. Indeed, the next President may actually come from the FMLN (now a political party). Back in 04 (more or less) the two best friends and collaborators on the Defense Committee of the Legislative Assembly were the chairman from ARENA, a retired army COL, and the "ranking member" from the FMLN, a former Comandante!

Rob, your Mosul prison story reminds me of our problem in getting Panama's Carcel Modelo back in business. Noiega, as Saddam did later, released all the inmates when the invasion hit. And the people looted the place! The new Commandant, needed to resupply just about everything - to the consternation of the commander of the 193d Inf Bde (COL Mike Snell) who was pressing me really hard to get the prison running because it was one of the preconditions to get his troops off the street. So, I took the Commandant, and a former PDF corporal who had been stationed there, out to Fort Cimarron, in my POV, where we believed we could get the supplies we needed. It was the day after the last sniper incident when we proved once again that Kevlar works. And I had neglected to coordinate the trip with the 82nd Airplane Div which controlled the place. So, I thought real fast as we approached their guard post on the hill and told my passengers to stay put. Stopped the car (little red Toyota), opened the door, put my hands on top of the door, stood up in soft cap and BDUs, and yelled at the top of my lungs, " Hey guys!!!!, I'm LTC Fishel of the US Forces Liaison Group. I have two Panamanian policemen in the car. May I come up and explain my business" - or something like that. Good troops - they let me. And that is how I made a successful assault on the 82nd! OBTW, we got what we needed and Mike got his infantry out of the police business.

Glad to see that you young guys are better at the business than we were.

Cheers

JohnT

[slapout9]

And I had neglected to coordinate the trip with the 82nd Airplane Div which controlled the place. So, I thought real fast as we approached their guard post on the hill and told my passengers to stay put. Stopped the car (little red Toyota), opened the door, put my hands on top of the door, stood up in soft cap and BDUs, and yelled at the top of my lungs, " Hey guys!!!!, I'm LTC Fishel of the US Forces Liaison Group. I have two Panamanian policemen in the car. May I come up and explain my business" - or something like that. Good troops - they let me. And that is how I made a successful assault on the 82nd! OBTW, we got what we needed and Mike got his infantry out of the police business.

Glad to see that you young guys are better at the business than we were.

Cheers

JohnT

Hi John, It was the May I ....that did it

[slapout9]

Hi Rob, this is for you. Tried to send/post before but couldn't find the right button. Slap

He is a 5 rings analysis for a country. I have permission to Post but it is copyrighted. This is about 10 years old and has been used on several countries and some cities.

The way to use it is to map the system exactly as it is now and then draw(map) another one of how you would like it to appear when you are finished. This can give you a clear end state to work towards when you are dealing with complex problems.

[John T. Fishel]

You got that one right, Bubba!

All I know is that my pucker factor was rather high at the time...