William Lind. Training troops in Iraq. When
asked for their solution to the mess in Iraq, both of America’s
presidential candidates – Tweedledumb and Tweedlephony – advance the
same line: “train more Iraqi security forces.” Once enough Iraqis have
been trained, they suggest, American troops can be withdrawn and our
puppet Iraqi government can stand on its own six legs. Unfortunately, the problem is not training, but loyalty.
All the training in the world is worthless if the people being trained
have no reason to fight for those who are training them. And a paycheck
isn’t much of a reason, especially when the fellow Iraqis they are to
battle are fighting for God.
Throughout history, armies of hirelings have
melted at a touch when faced with people fighting for something they
believe in. All the training in the world will make no difference. The
core problem is the deepest taproot of Fourth Generation war: the “state” Iraqi security forces are being told to fight for has no legitimacy.
When Bush and Kerry argue that we can avoid defeat in Iraq by training
more Iraqis to do the fighting for us, they are indulging in a grand
illusion.
Plus a Boyd analysis of the situation. [John Robb's Weblog]