We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:18:26 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2012 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:46:36 -0600
As Always,
Grumpy]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html#comment-89417 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html#comment-89417 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:17:58 -0600
Agreed that we'll never Americanize either country, but then, I don't think that's what we should be doing in the first place. Iraq was already fairly *Westernized*, though, and that has been continuing in fits and starts. We keep telling the kaydets, "We're not training you to be American pilots who happen to speak Arabic -- we're training you to be Iraqi pilots who are as skilled as we are."

The Iraqi military isn't the future of Iraq, but it's the organization which will insure Iraq has a future. The current Field and Flag grade officers are all over fifty, and the average Iraqi male lives to about fifty-seven -- in ten years, you'll be seeing a lot of very young colonels and generals...
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html#comment-89399 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html#comment-89399 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:04:14 -0600
@BillT, in many respects, I agree with your whole post. If we were to stay in Iraq for 30-40 generations, do you  think your assessment would ever change? I believe you'll see see temporary periods of lull, but nothing permanent. We'll never "Americanize" Iraq or A'stan.


]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html#comment-89397 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html#comment-89397 Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:04:28 -0600 In our country, politics is the art of compromise. In Iraq, politics tends to be the art of winner taking all.

That's changing, at least in small ways. Back in January, sparks were flying between Erbil and Baghdad over the legality of Kurdish foreign oil sales. Last month, the two parties hammered out an agreement within the stipulations of the Iraqi Federal Oil Sales document. Two years ago, there would have been killings.

If you want an example of the Byzantine twists that local politics are going through in Kirkuk, the Shi'a Arabs are now aligned with the Sunni and Christian Kurds against the Sunni Arabs and the Sunni and Shi'a Turkmens. Each of the three ethnic groups, Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens, forms about a third of the population -- the two coalitions formed because each group knew that it would stand a good chance of becoming a minority if any of the others ran a particularly strong slate of candidates for the regional elections.
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html#comment-89380 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/06/iraq_the_surge.html#comment-89380 Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:37:00 -0600