Strategic Directions in Iraq - and the idea of Cultural Identity as a CoG

[Rob Thornton]

I was thinking about this on the way home -

I was thinking in terms of how Non-state organizations convince the select parts of the Iraqi populace (or portions of it) to facillitate their political ends. The only thing I could come up with was by appealing to the "moral entities as a source of moral strength, power and resistance that are a natural part of the cultural identity of the sub groups, and in some cases playing to the more common themes where interests converge (here we might be talking about financial gain, but commerce is also a big part of the Iraqi culture).

I think that if this is the case, then the only way to prevent those groups from taking advantage of it is to create within their cultural identity the idea that "pluralism" is not only OK, but beneficial and a strength. The way to start I think is to build upon those foundations already present within the cultural identity and portray pluralism as being useful and good in at least some cases (such as the notion of trade), and to demonstrate that the fears the AIF (and like elements) are using to take advantage of cultural identity are not OK, counter-productive and are a weakness.

I think its a real challenge, but its more useful to me. You have to find a useful wayof defining the moral force that is the population. Maybe its only a metaphor, but then again may "moral force" is too. The problem with Clausewitz and Strange is that for me the definitions don't easily lend themselves to thinking outside a conventional sense - they are appliable and useful, but need to applied.

I often wonder how "On War" would have read if Clausewitz had been an economist, or diplomat. It is a timeless work in my opinion, but its real utility is in application beyond the period Clausewitz's politcal-military construct.

We were reviewing the National Security Strategy and the Defense security strategy and somebody made the remark - "hey where are the documents on National Economic strategy and National Political Strategy?" It says allot. We may need to think about how we balance and apply the instruments of national power in light of the changing world.