Shut It Down
That is the collar insignia of the of the US Army’s Civil Affairs branch. Their motto is “Securing the victory” which is what their purpose is – rebuilding the civil society after a war. Unfortunately the decision was made to move about 83% of this branch to the Reserves from the regular Army.
These are the people who should have taken over the mission in Iraq hard on the heels of the combat forces, but they weren’t ready in large numbers and they weren’t included in the plan. The Hedgemony was depending on the “democracy gnome” to take over after Saddam was removed, but you just can’t depend on gnomes anymore.
Dr. Cole says it is Time to Close the US Embassy in Iraq, and the fact is, it shouldn’t even have been opened until the security situation was resolved. You can’t be a diplomat when you need armored cars and armed thugs when you leave the grounds of the embassy. This is not the time to move more people into Iraq, especially American civilians, when they are going to be nothing more than targets.
Iraq is a combat zone. The military doesn’t give you a service medal and a suspension of income taxes when you are stationed in Germany, but they do if you’re stationed in the “Green Zone” of Baghdad.
6 comments
We don’t put embassies in combat zones.
Well, I mean, I know they did. But it’s like saying, we don’t blow up toads.
They didn’t in support of their lies that everything was wonderful, just a handful of malcontents, these will be normal, just like Indiana in a couple of weeks.
The more people you put into Iraq, the more to withdraw, and withdraw we will.
Gnome more war! Gnome more war! (Sorry; I was just practicing for the invasion of Iran.)
Unfortunately, I am beginning to think about Middle East matters again, and it’s really depressing. It did not have to be this way.
Thanks for the info about the Civil Affairs branch; I didn’t know it existed.
Everything you need to know about Civil Affairs can be learned from a brief look at post-WWII Germany and Japan – and what they are today.
Not only did CA perform their assigned mission, they did it with spectacular success.
I guess that explains why they were replaced in Iraq by kids just out of Republican-approved colleges, sons & daughters of the Republican almost-elite, and totally inexperienced political operatives.
Civil Affairs has the unlucky reputation of working too well when utilized properly. Therefore, it must be shut out of the process.
It makes no sense to claim you have a counter-insurgency plan and not have a strong CA representation in it. They are the “hearts and minds” people in the military; it is their specialty.
They are also the obvious choice for peace keeping operations, as they generally use a “police” as opposed to “combat” approach to security, and they function as law enforcement while having full-blown combat capability.
It is really frustrating knowing that the military has the skills and people to do the job, but lacks the leadership to allow it to happen.