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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! May 10, 2009 Shots On GoalBy GreyhawkAndrew Exum calls this Washington Post report "The Most Depressing Thing You'll Read Today". I'd call it the most frustrating thing you'll read today, so if frustration depresses you than we're both right. The idea was to train the Iraqis so that when the time came to distribute the wheelchairs, Blauser and the 20 or so U.S. soldiers who coordinated the giveaway could fade into the background as Iraqi troops presented 32 fully assembled wheelchairs to disabled children.A worthy goal, but... Thirty minutes into the assembly tutorial, the crowd of Iraqi soldiers thinned as curiosity gave way to boredom. Soon, Blauser, 43, found himself surrounded mainly by U.S. troops.A good question. Unfortunately, instead of an answer from the reporter who was apparently on scene we get more questions: It raised questions that haunt U.S. troops as they prepare to pull out of Iraqi cities by June 30: When the Americans leave, how will the Iraqi forces behave?...leaving us to come up with answers (from half a world away) on our own. First, let's dispense with this: US troops aren't leaving Iraqi cities by June 30th - that's a media fiction. In fact, the "non-combat" troops who will remain will be doing a lot more than distributing wheelchairs - so let's roll. Like all military members I had ample opportunity to conduct training in my career. I confess to having seen yawns from the crowd (limited to the late night party animals, I'm sure), but never having someone up and walk away. Had it happened, I'd have swiftly trained them on that subject, too - in a manner memorable to all. But as for why the Iraqi troops wandered off, the possible answers are endless. Language barrier? Could be. Resentment of America? Who knows? Beneath their dignity? No idea. Lack of enthusiasm? No doubt. Ineffective trainer? Partly, at least. (Certainly the reporter doesn't explain, but not everyone is aware of their failure to effectively convey information even in the face of visible evidence in midst of the effort.) Perhaps the trainees simply don't see wheelchair distribution as part of the job description. Certainly few in the pre-1990 U.S. military would view that sort of thing as a core competency - though a history of Berlin candy bombing and Toys for Tots has demonstrated the advantage of that weapon in the arsenal of Democracy. Bringing that spirit to distant battlefields has become unofficial (and effective) American military doctrine and offers stark contrast in a hearts and minds campaign to an enemy that offers public beheading as an alternative. Resulting "feel good" stories for the folks back home are nice, but efforts abroad are often life-essential; hunger, for example, is a feeling best not ignored. Even without the minimal homefront PR gains, our small-scale, localized efforts to improve quality of life in Iraq and Afghanistan should continue on their intrinsic merits. The additional benefit - softening the public image of the tough guy GI, the master of blowing up things and killing people - is certainly worthwhile, but if an Army hasn't established that reputation in the first place (and it is useful as a deterrent to other "armies" who would like to establish it using you) its soldiers might not embrace the objective with the same level of enthusiasm as ours. There may be a cultural component involved in their lack of enthusiasm, too. A certain fatalism grips the region, and non-Muslim Americans who view the Insh'Allah factor as eradicable by example are in for endless disappointment - or worse. What many Americans perceive as unwillingness to act, obstinacy, or downright laziness among individuals may indeed be examples of some or all of those aspects of human nature, but when validated by religious doctrine and centuries of custom those character traits become more than intractable.To the incautious or unaware, discouraging that behavior becomes less annoyance and more blasphemous in the mind of the "trainee"; results of that are predictable. (Patient indifference, at best.) This is not to imply hopelessness; Zakat (setting aside alms for the poor, preferably in secret) is one of the Pillars of Islam - but the approach to task by the non-believer is best done with caution. Then again, it's possible the non-participants in this exercise simply didn't want to take part in a fraud. "We're trying to build rapport," said Staff Sgt. Craig Jackson, 34, of Pennsylvania, one of the squad leaders working with Blauser. "Show them that their government is trying to help its people."Which would have been fine if their government had somehow been involved, but this is the story of Brad Blauser and the folks back home: Reach Out and Care Wheels, a Montana nonprofit organization that distributes pediatric wheelchairs assembled by South Dakota prison inmates, agreed to provide some to Blauser for $200 apiece, significantly lower than the retail price of similar chairs. Blauser reached out to friends, relatives and strangers online, seeking funds. By the end of 2005, he had raised $20,000 -- enough for 100 pediatric chairs to distribute in a country where they are a rarity.Noting the "prompting", I feel Alaa's pain. Perhaps the Iraqi government will help "lots in the future". But their current priorities stop somewhere short of wheelchair distribution. Given the other issues they currently confront, that's excusable. Blaming Iraqi soldiers for not playing along with an attempt to provide cover in this example is less so. Citing this well-intentioned effort by a small group of American soldiers as an example of why "billions of dollars and thousands of lives spent propping up and legitimizing the Iraqi government" might "have been a poor investment" is certainly dramatic but hardly an accurate picture of progress in Iraq - military, civilian, or otherwise. Unfortunately it's more indicative of what passes for journalism in America today. It also strongly reinforce a pre-existing "screw those people" mindset in many Washington Post readers, as evidenced by their comments appended to the online version of the story. If that was the author's goal he most definitely scored. Previous/related: Going Through Withdrawals Posted by Greyhawk / May 10, 2009 7:49 PM | Permalink 1 CommentLeave a comment |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
As to the question of why the Iraqis were bored with the whole thing, I speculate it has to do with their cultural denigration of those who are weak. They respect strength and show little compassion, and indeed much contempt, for those that cannot defend themselves.