Good News

I thought I would post a little good news. I would first, however, like to retract the generalization that Iraqi's are lazy. (In my defense the word lazy appears but once in this blog.) However, that speaks to motivation, and I cannot possibly know the motivation of Iraqi's apparent unwillingness to work on their own.

Secondly, that is an unfair generalization. I alluded to the success of neighboring areas, and that is actually more generally true. (The extrapolation of the worst case scenario to the general is a perenial problem for soldiers, police, and such, since people who fix things only see when they are broken.) Actually, in the area, outside of the city where I normally work. The police and army do their jobs quite well. In fact, I would say that even in this city it has turned a corner.

I just returned from a mission where the Iraqi Army was the main effort, and while it was not a flawless execution, and the style was distinctly Iraqi, they were very good. I am heartened by this.

I would like to conclude by pointing out that, at least on the local and practical level, no one is trying to turn Iraqi's into Americans. All we want is for them to do things their way, but do something. As soon as that is done, we will leave. The problem is that they may not do things until they have to. JV never plays while varsity is on the field.