Troop formations and close-order drill are a good thing for transitioning civilians into soldiers. You gotta have it for your conventional combat units.

What you need for counterinsurgency though are units that can act independently and with initiative. A captain (or even staff NCO) who is presented with a crisis of perhaps strategic proportions and is given the ability to resolve it without having to "call the six". From an Army perspective, Special Forces has this capability (although I've heard some friends there lamenting how "big Army" is slowly sinking its claws into the organization).

The only way to graduate soldiers to the level I'm talking about are to train 'em hard as recruits first. I feel that the current Army basic training regimen and syllabus is woefully lacking in this regard. The Marines still kick our ass in this category. Once seasoned with a few hard years in a line unit, they can be ready to move into special units that are given latitude in operational planning and decision-making and are free from micro-management.

I also think soldiers serving here (at least the squad-level leadership and up) need REAL cultural training. I'm not talking about the silly "Arabs consider the left hand dirty" type kindergarten ####. I mean the real, in-depth "how does an Arab think and feel" GRADUATE-LEVEL type knowlege. Why do our leaders still make decisions and assesments based on western education and values? For all you "Boydists" out there, you cannot get inside the enemy's OODA loop thinking like a westerner. You get inside it and think LIKE AN ARAB THINKS!!

There is a lieutenant in my supported unit who is a company XO. He was amazed at the books in my PSYOP team's collection and he wanted to read them. #### that I thought was basic-level stuff that my team and I had read or at least looked at and discussed. I have the advantage of a team member who serves on a congressional staff as a middle-eastern specialist, but still... what sort of prep work had this LT been doing apart from an NTC rotation and checking off the blocks on a CTT worksheet?

On the bright side though, in the same company, is a staff sergeant who trades books with me all the time. So, there is always hope...

I perused the board in which everyone here introduces themselves and was disappointed to see so few who wrote "I'm an active-duty Army infantry (or armor, or FA, or whatever) officer/NCO in Iraq thirsty for knowlege and looking to truly win the counterinsurgency fight here." There are so many who are "former" or "retired" and this is well and good. Especially for the guys who served in 'Nam. There are many lessons to be drawn from that conflict and can be applied here (as well as many that can't). But this board should be overwhelmed with current leaders who are looking for more answers and bouncing ideas off eachother. God knows we have enough access to the Internet.

Anyway, I'll step off my soapbox (or, rather shut off my loudspeaker).