As I read Gen. Scales piece, I interpreted it as him hoipng that an Iraqi NCO Corps would emerge that would be capable of leading small units in COIN operations.

My experience from teaching, living with, and serving around Arab armies suggests this is not an achievable goal in a short to mid term, short being our efforts so far and possibly another year or two, and mid term being 10 plus years.

Sudan: 4 months in the Sudanese Army as student and I can safely say that NCOs were regarded as nothing more than glorified bat boys who terrified the troops as necessary.

Egypt: 5 years in and out of Egypt as a UN observer, student, travelr, and historian. Interesting in that Egyptian Army was/is a an amalgamation of British, Soviet/Russian, and Egyptian culture. While the first did have an effect in that it created an NCO corps (as it did in Sudan), the Soviet approach coupled with the Egyptian emphasis on status means that an Egyptian NCO has not progressed beyond the file closer mentality of the 18th/19th century.

Jordan: the Arab Legion still claims a close identity with its British roots. My interaction with it has been limited to studying its operations and teaching its officers with some in-country time as an observer. The roles of The NCO corps seems frozen in time around the period that Glubb Pasha helped form the Legion.

There are very few militaries in the world that will turn to its NCO corps the way we do. There are even fewer militaries in the world that senior NCOs are expected to act as advisors and often mentors to the officers around them. I do not believe Sudanese, Egyptian, or Jordanian officers would accept such a role for their NCOs. My contact with Iraqi military culture is limited to studying Arabic in close contact with former Iraqi officers as well as studying the Iraqi military as an intelligence officer. Nothing I have seen indicates the Iraqis are any different that the Sudanese, Egyptians, or the Jordanians when it comes to how they use their NCOs.

Tom