Imagine...

Can you Veterans imagine our Armed Forces without an NCO Corps? That’s essentially what the Iraqi Army is. The NCOs that they do have are nothing more than glorified Jundis (Privates). An NCO to them is a direct threat to the Officer’s in their eyes. In some units they do have some effective NCOs, so I hear. It takes ten years to build an NCO Corps, something they don’t have. Something they need now. You can send them to schools, but that won’t give them the experience an NCO should have in leading troops. Not only are they uneducated Militarily, they are often uneducated period. Saddam put all of his money into fighting wars he couldn’t win so, education suffered. Many American people complain about lack of money for education in our system, our American Fallacy…Throw money at it…Yet, here schools were shut down so money could be spent on unattainable goals.
Today I had a Veteran of the Iran/Iraq War show me some of his scars. He was in the last two years of the war. A bloody stalemate that his country ultimately lost. Now he’s in the “new” Iraqi Army, in another bloody stalemate. Will they ultimately lose this war too? I don’t know. Arabian Army’s have not stood well against invaders, but, have rid themselves of occupiers. Their last great victory*, the expulsion of the Ottoman Turks, was done with their own hands…though, largely accomplished by the clever strategy of T.E. Lawrence, he gave wise men council. So, there is hope that they can “out Guerilla the Guerilla”.
Today(21 Jun 06) it was 120 Fahrenheit in the shade. At 1700 the direct sun seems unbearable. It hasn’t rained in months, yet there are puddles of blue water, pretty like an ocean, sitting in open spaces. Mud puddles layered by dirty white crystals of brackish earth are still slippery. The mud will still stick to your boots…It hasn’t rained in months. “I’ve never seen it rain mud, until I came here”, one of my counterparts told me. “It doesn’t rain much, just enough to make you miserable”, said by someone from the Northwest. Today I tried explaining to some Iraqis how much it rains back home(parts of Transylvania County get over 100” a year). I’m told it’s dry back home. Nothing seems dryer than here as I watch a Dust Devil 20’ high meander off towards the airfield. Dust swirls in the air where brackish mud puddles lay on the ground…It’s a strange land.
* I first put their “greatest victory”, but that was probably the expulsion of the Crusaders from Jerusalem, led by Saladin.
The Appalachianist.