Tuesday, May 11, 2004
What You Don't See in the Newspapers
Here's what a member of the New Iraqi Army has to say about his experiences with American training and command influence. It's a great lesson in why leadership is important, and a window into the mechanism by which Iraqis will eventually reassert control in their own country.
And if the Army is accustomed to democratic behaviors, respect for the comman man, and the rooting out of bribery and corruption, it will be very difficult for any future brutal thugs to secure the support and service of the military.
This is also why I think Abu Ghraib will largely blow over in Iraq, soon--there are simply too many other personal experiences people have with US troops which are positive or neutral. And the really positive ones get told and retold through informal networks like the ones we see here.
Abu Ghraib hurts us more in the moderate Arab states which have ubiquitous medias but whose people don't have near daily contact with US Troops whose behavior still compares favorably with Saddam's goons.
I don't think Abu Ghraib turns moderates into terrorists, as some have argued. Rather, I think it turns collaborators into neutrals and neutrals into passive supporters of the resistance, and makes our jobs more difficult in the short to medium term.
But all is not lost, and it's dismaying to see so many people throw up their hands and cry we've lost when things don't go perfectly or when we suffer setbacks or disappointments.
What did pitchers in the 1920s and 30s do after Babe Ruth hit a home run off of them?
They sucked it up, and wound up and pitched to Gehrig.
And these bastards have got nothing on Gehrig.
Splash, out
Jason
And if the Army is accustomed to democratic behaviors, respect for the comman man, and the rooting out of bribery and corruption, it will be very difficult for any future brutal thugs to secure the support and service of the military.
This is also why I think Abu Ghraib will largely blow over in Iraq, soon--there are simply too many other personal experiences people have with US troops which are positive or neutral. And the really positive ones get told and retold through informal networks like the ones we see here.
Abu Ghraib hurts us more in the moderate Arab states which have ubiquitous medias but whose people don't have near daily contact with US Troops whose behavior still compares favorably with Saddam's goons.
I don't think Abu Ghraib turns moderates into terrorists, as some have argued. Rather, I think it turns collaborators into neutrals and neutrals into passive supporters of the resistance, and makes our jobs more difficult in the short to medium term.
But all is not lost, and it's dismaying to see so many people throw up their hands and cry we've lost when things don't go perfectly or when we suffer setbacks or disappointments.
What did pitchers in the 1920s and 30s do after Babe Ruth hit a home run off of them?
They sucked it up, and wound up and pitched to Gehrig.
And these bastards have got nothing on Gehrig.
Splash, out
Jason
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