On Justice

I believe that there is right, and there is wrong. If I have to suffer to make that mean something, then I will do so gladly. It is only through suffering that the great changes of the world are effected. Ghandhi, MLK Jr., Jesus (even though I don't really believe in the guy except as a pretty cool dude), Mandela. These are the moral exemplars that I believe in.

Oh God No Wonder We're Losing

I just sat in on a meeting with the battalion commander and the local qaim'maqam. The American was insulting, condescending, demanding, and his behavior was clearly motivated by self-interest. Everything I have ever learned about negotiation, diplomacy, governance, and development militates against this man's position of importance. I don't know if this is typical for the US military, but if it is, we need to leave Iraq immediately.

Mission Counter 13

Hey, got busy, sorta. 4 missions this week, and I made it on half of them.

And then there was that time we drove these dipshits halfway across the province so they could attend a ceremony at the main base. Fuck you.

Mission Counter 12

Every single one of our missions was canceled this week. Are you surprised?

Somebody's Bright Idea of Politics

The Army is uniquely ill-equipped for negotiating with civilians, it would seem. Certain elements seem all gung-ho about canceling all our civil affairs missions (not that we really had any in the first place) in order to send a message to the Iraqis that they should cooperate with our operations or they won't get any projects done. This inane attempted threat will completely fail to work, for three reasons:

1. We have done essentially no projects to date. You can't effectively threaten to take away something that the other player doesn't believe you were ever going to give.
   
2. The Iraqi leadership doesn't care if we don't go out to try to get projects, because they want us out anyways.
3. And because not only do they want us out, but they hold all the legal means to make us stay out, we are in a severe position of weakness going into this negotiation. Acting like we hold all the cards is a recipe for nothing but failure. (Mixed metaphors FTW.)

Just another reason to say: Fuck the Army

Mission Counter 11

ZERO. YAY SOVEREIGNTY.

Unprofessionalism

In my time with this team, one of my bosses has been consistently insulting towards my other boss. He willfully misinterprets the actions and statements of the latter to cast him in the worst possible light, and then uses these misinterpretations to denigrate him. While the man is indeed a poor communicator and often makes poor decisions, there is a difference between pitching him shit for this--a fairly standard behavior for a soldier--and attacking him at every turn.

This morning, I had the audacity to call him on yet another one of these incidents. He apparently took offense. But instead of dealing with the issue then and there, as we all stood in the hallway, he conducted a behind-closed-doors conference with the man he was just casting aspersion upon and directed him to counsel me for disrespecting his rank. I don't know why; I'm sure his stated reason would be that the other is my first-line leader, while he is one step above. And I could understand it if he were not in my direct chain of command. But as is, it is a pathetic commentary that he feels the urge to flee from the hard duty of correcting someone you think is wrong.

The bottom line is this: If you want the soldiers under your command to respect you, you should start by respecting the soldiers under your command. Anything else is pathetically unprofessional.

Mission Counter 10/SOFA

I didn't leave the base once this week. We allegedly had a brigade-ordered standdown this week to show that we respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi people as the status of forces agreement forces us out of their cities. Of course, since my job entails almost nothing but going into cities...

But naturally, the idiot leadership of the battalion to whom I am attached decided to send people out anyways. One platoon got kicked off an Iraqi Army base, another got told not to return to a certain village. It's all quite hilarious. For better or worse, it's their country now.