[kgoerz]

Great read. Funny how things change in war. From the story, correct me if I am wrong. He is a SF Major assigned alone on the Base. Are things spread that thin over there. Unless just for opsec he was just talking in the single person perspective. He is right in a lot of his views. Problem being is Iraq is a big place and there is not enough advisor's to put everywhere let alone advisers as committed as the Major. As long as big Army is there things will be dealt with collateral damage along side it. Like he says a guy can feed his family for a month just planting a few IED'S. What would you do if your family was starving and there was no work to be found. I am also tired of hearing about how we trained up the German Army and helped them get their Government back together so quick after WWII, why can't that be done in Iraq. I think the cultural difference between the Germans and Muslims speaks for itself on that one. As long as Terrorist are pumping money into the insurgency to pay people to kill americans it won't stop. I believe we are on the right track which is to train up the Iraq Army and Police to take over. Question is will it work. A guy I worked with in Colombia just left a big contract training up an Iraq Assault BN before the invasion of Falusha. They were motivated and had already carried out several successfully operations. They had a kick ass Iraqi SGM. Problem was the USA didn't pay them what they were promised. Before the attack on Falusha they hadn't received pay for two months. Two days before the attack more then half went AWOL, including the SGM. They said they would not participate unless they got paid. It wasn't because they were scared. They already proved they would fight. The pay problem was brought up several times but never resolved. Three months of Spec Op's training and missions all went to wast because Someone didn't get these guys paid. Most of the interpreter's left also because of the same problem. They didn't sneak out either. They turned in their tricked out AK'S and walked off the base right in front of everyone. The ones that stayed ended up taking part in the attack but on a much smaller scale because more then half left. The marines had to pick up the slack. I was amazed this could happen. Some of the contractors were giving their own money to them just to keep the really good ones around but that didn't last long. Events like this will be why we fail I am sure there were more like it.