Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience

[Rex Brynen]

Another update from Iraq, courtesy of Biker Chick #1:

One of the things that I consistently notice when I'm out on mission is how little soldiers interact with, well, anyone. I'm not talking about detailed conversations, just a simple word of acknowledgement. A 'salam', perhaps even a 'asalamu alaykum' if they were feeling ambitious. God knows the Army has spent enough money on Arabic language Smart Cards for soldiers to carry around in their pockets. Our PSD (Personal Security Detail) will walk straight past groups of people who are obviously perturbed or upset by their presence without a word. Several of us sat around talking about this tonight.

I told a few other team members about a mission I recently went on, where the first stop happened to be quick checkup on a Civil Affairs project where they had attempted to lay a 400 square foot patch of sod and grow grass at the local court building. We were in a series of four MRAPs (absolutely giant, but very very safe to ride in, vehicles) and parked in the middle of a main street, blocking three lanes of Iraqi traffic. It took about 30 seconds before horns started honking. As I was in the same MRAP as the CA folk, I tagged along. We walked straight past Iraqi Police guard checkpoints into the building without a word, as the IP stared at us in awe. I offered a friendly greeting, and they yelled down to me:

"Hey! Are you a translator?"

"No, um... I'm... I'm an analyst, but I speak some Arabic."

"What the hell is going on with the traffic! What are you guys doing here? Who is supposed to be controlling the security in this area; us, or you?!"

I am pretty sure that my response was, "I'm sorry. It will be five minutes, five minutes only. We are here... (I paused, unsure what to say...) to look at... some grass."

They took it well. I thanked them for their patience and they asked if I was married. But I couldn't help thinking, if I hadn't been there, would anyone have said anything? Would they just have walked in, walked past, blocked traffic, and left without a word?

My colleagues laughed sadly when I told them this story. One explained. "It's all about the way that you see the people around you. It's perfectly normal for a person to say a simple hello when they see another person. It's substantially less normal to say hello to a lawn chair. To most soldiers, Iraqis are simply the local fauna."

Another colleague says, "It goes both ways though. You know, I used to watch these Hizbullah anti-Israeli occupation cartoons on al-Manar (Hizbullah's satellite tv channel). And you'd notice, every Palestinian in the cartoon looked different - some were fat, some skinny, some had mustaches, some didn't, different hair colors... you get the picture. And for the Israeli soldiers, it looked like they just drew one, and used him to represent every soldier. We look equally 'the same' to most Iraqis."

I laugh. "Hell, I can't tell the guys on our PSD apart half the time. Everyone's tall, built, low body fat, buzzed hair, dressed the same, lots of body armor, and has eye-pro covering half their face. Our green-suiter research manager sometimes gets mad at me when I don't see him and sit with him in the DFAC. Honestly, I just can't pick him out from everyone else."

It's yet to be seen how the majority of Iraqis will remember our presence here. The experience I've seen the most is that people have had one or two positive interactions with individuals that they remember and respect, amid a wash of identical shapes, most of whom either ignored them or shouted at them in a language they did not understand.

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The thing that shocks me the most here is just how much money is being injected into the system, and how little return USF and aid vehicles see in their projects. The assumption that aid is inherently good is alive and well here, with little understanding of how putting this much money into a limited number of hands and seeing how it spreads can affect the economic system of a district, or a country. There is an awful lot of 'doing', and pitifully little 'thinking', or attempting to understand potential effects of actions. Reports are a long list of accomplishments; $500k spent here, $150k spent there, this clinic built, this program funded, but very little analysis on why, or any measure of effectiveness. At times it delves into the absurd, such as the Beekeeping for Widows program that seems to be floating around here these days, or PRT's current plan to establish 4H Clubs throughout southern Baghdad.

It's not all humorous. The vicious cycle of aid unintentionally fueling conflict appears in all kinds of ways. The head of the Civil Affairs team told me that during his last deployment, he was literally given a large bag with stacks of $100 bills in it to pay Iraqi contractors with. Halfway through the bag, he started recording the serial numbers of the bills he was giving out. He asked our S2 (the brigade intelligence shop) to please send him serial numbers of money they found on detained insurgents, and found that the wide majority of money being used by AQI and smaller groups came directly from Civil Affairs.

"It was about a one week turnaround, and by that I mean one week in between me giving the contractor the money and it appearing in an insurgent's wallet. Of course, we'd call up the contractor and say, 'What the hell?' and he'd say, 'Well, if I don't pay 10% to AQI (or whoever) then they will attack my project and threaten my family.' " So what do you do? You can't just stop doing reconstruction projects. If it was a case of protecting myself and my family, hell, I'd probably do the same thing."

[Steve the Planner]

Rex:

Biker Chick has it down.

I thought she was writing about my usual provincial excursions.

In 2008, it was giving out refrigerated bongo trucks, and opening banks in Sammara.

Better to use a C-130 to push pallets of cash out the back door to save folks from having to sell the second hand bongo trucks at a discount to get cash.

On SME's salary for a day in a cash box left on the street was as best you could do in Samarra until fighting stopped. Once it did, they had their own baking going ASAP. What did we contribute?

Best lessons still came from lawrence---better they do it themselves. Facilitate that and you have re-built capacity.

[John T. Fishel]

Community Development 101!

We know how to do this. We have decades of experience in wartime and peacetime. The first step is always to find out what the local people say they need and then make it possible for them to get it.

My first experience with this was in rural Mexico in 1962; then in a poor Mexico City neighborhood in 64; then in Peru's mountains from 66 thru 68; finally in Honduras in 86. It ain't hard and always needs to begin by asking questions not by telling people what you think they need. You have to listen or you will fail.

As my Mexican friends would say, "Hijole!!!!"

JohnT

[Ken White]

18 and 19 year olds to be 'tough soldats,' place them in an area where the "local fauna" can be problematic if not outright hostile -- and then rather foolishly IMO expect them to be gregarious social networkers with said fauna -- who speak in another tongue and obviously won't say in English what they are saying in the local dialect. A few US Troopies can and will do that -- most will not...

Not likely to change. Not with the kids nor their NCOs. The NCOs live by these rules among others:

16. Don't drop your guard.
18. Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them).
21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
22. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.

and the kids who stay alive tend to develop in their image. As they should...

Most officers will bend to do the necessary socialization it but even many of them will not and most that do won't really like it. There's a reason for the existence of MI and CA folks. There's an even greater reason we organized, developed and trained Special Forces the way we do -- or did. The relative maturity and cultural / language training is only a part of it.

The GPF is good at the job for which it is recruited, equipped, organized and trained. It can and will accept cross training to perform marginally in the FID or other role but it will never excel at that role. Nor should it.

Moral of that is do not use the wrong tool for the job and then complain about the unsuitability of the tool...

[John T. Fishel]

was talking specifically about CA folk. I would include anyone assigned to a PRT regardless of branch. But at a minimum, the officers need to see the people in the "local fauna."

I would note that my experience in Honduras was military while the other sitautions were civilian. My experience in El Salvador was also military and perhaps more relevant to what you were pointing out - nevertheless, asking the local people, engaging them is a great source of intel whether you are MI, CA, or merely a grunt...

cheers

JohnT

[Ken White]

was talking specifically about CA folk. I would include anyone assigned to a PRT regardless of branch. But at a minimum, the officers need to see the people in the "local fauna."

Those are grunts (or they're Joe / MP or MOS Immaterial; little difference in this case)...

...nevertheless, asking the local people, engaging them is a great source of intel whether you are MI, CA, or merely a grunt...

I agree but it's been my observation that Grunts in general do not do that well; that in units, detachments or elements and 'on the job' they generally do not do it at all and that, lacking the language most will actually go out of their way to avoid it. Most Troops that age do not like to think they're being talked about or laughed at by strangers with no option for a macho response.

Good Grunts (or bad Grunts who are competent at their job) are also very much guided by rules 21 and 22:

21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
22. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.

Most of us tend to not get friendly with people we may have to shoot. 'Courteous' to a working (as opposed to an off duty) Grunt means a nod, not chit chat. The NCOs also will have one way or another told the Troops that they are in no circumstances to embarrass that NCO.

All the foregoing is not an argument or discussion stimulant and in no way disputes anything you've written. I read BC#1's comment and it resonated, I smiled and wrote merely a response to her comment and not to yours. I did it solely for informatory purposes based on my observations of a lot of young Grunts a lot of places for those who wish to contemplate methodologies and strategeries for the future...

I will also note that if you tell them (and get the agreement of their Squad Leader, PSG or NCOIC) to be sociable, they will do so in spades. However, if you do that, do not upbraid them for neglecting their security 'job' because they will go into their shells and will never socialize in front of you again. IOW, remember they're 19 and be careful what you want and tell them you want.

NOTE: As is true of all generalities pertaining to people, there are occasional or frequent at times exceptions in all directions to the norms I cited. Equally true is that many here know all that. However, many do not...

[John T. Fishel]

Ken, it is not entirely clear to me whether she was referring to the security detail or the CA folk or both. I think, when all is said and done, we agree. My inclination would be to make it SOP to greet the locals with Salaam - a greeting is not being sociable, just courteous. But with all the caveats implicit and explicit in your post...

Reminds me, however, of an incident in Panama on Easter Sunday 1987. I was walking in the Balboa section of Panama City that morning and the streets were deserted except for 2 PDF cops. As I approached them I greeted them and wished them a Happy Easter - their jaws dropped. It was like nobody ever said anything at all to them in a courteous way, let alone some gringo speaking their language.

Cheers

JohnT