monday night i met up with a friend that i haven't seen since we graduated high school. eli was recently in iraq for two tours as an officer in the army, MOS combat arms. so of course i had to prod him on how everything was going on the battle front.

his first tour in iraq involved combat missions, but the second tour he spent training iraqi soldiers how to use their weapons. this training was so frustrating that eli said he'd rather do combat missions then go through that second tour again.

 

so this is why eli believes we are failing to train the iraqi army:

1) language barrier. this is pretty obvious. we do not have the personnel with the language and military skills to train the soldiers.

2) the soldiers that have been trained proficiently are not interested in helping untrained soldiers. they feel that with knowledge they have gained power, and in educating others, they would dilute their position of power. so instead of contributing to the greater good, they'd rather hold onto their position of privilege.

3) the iraqis feel they do not need to work while the americans are around to do the work for them. there are many excuses not to work such as the heat, the bureaucracy(and chain of command), religious reasons.

eli's recommendation was to leave iraq. the government is indecisive because they really don't need to make any decisions with the US overseeing things. in addition, the various religious factions are at odds with eachother and if the religious leaders cannot agree, then the government cannot make a decision.

but if they can't work it out now, when we leave they'll probably be work things out with their militias. of course it doesn't look good any way you look at it.