Quote Originally Posted by SFAT View Post
The word “no” and the phrase “use your own systems “ are like a broken record within my team.
Have they got systems of their own? Not systems that exist in theory or on paper, but systems they are comfortable with and that actually function for them?

One mistake we often make in foreign countries (by no means exclusively in the military realm) is to assume that systems are installed or built, when in fact systems have to evolve, and they have to evolve along with those who are to use them. If people who have dealt with systems all their lives and take them for granted try to "install" systems in places where there are none (or none that the installers would recognize as systems), it's easy to come up with something that makes perfect sense to the installer, but is effectively dysfunctional for those who are supposed to use it. If people are consistently unable or unwilling to use the system, maybe the system needs to be re-evaluated.

Quote Originally Posted by SFAT View Post
But men, I’m here to tell ya, after eleven years there is still a long long way to go. Corruption is king and there is nothing that can be done about it.
There always is a long way to go... but are we clear on where we're going? What are we trying to accomplish here, and are those goals and the goals of those we wish to assist on the same page?

Granted, my observations of US military assistance are in an entirely different environment, but sometimes I feel that what we're actually producing here is a security force that's remarkably adept at parroting out doctrine back to us and generally telling us what we want to hear while pursuing their own goals (not necessarily consistent with ours) at the same time. One consistent factor is that corruption is king here as well.