CJR and COIN, II: Some Good Stuff

Posted By Grim

Having earlier posted a minor complaint with CJR's foray into reporting on COIN operations, I think it's only fair to point out that the two last pieces have been very good.  You might want to read Paul McCleary's latest two pieces, which are the kind of frontline, embedded reporting I am only too glad to see.

Diaz and Sheik Hussein are still feeling each other out, performing the slow dance that Arab culture dictates strongmen perform with each other—complimenting, then pushing, declaring friendship, then starting all over again. “I purposefully have met with very few people in the first couple weeks,” Diaz tells him, “because I first want to meet with important people.” The sheik, this implies, is one of these important people. It’s a nice gambit in this year-old counterinsurgency campaign that places emphasis on building relationships at the local level, in hopes that each new brick will build a strong enough wall to keep law-abiding Iraqis on one side, and insurgents, terrorists, and foreign fighters on the other. Mainstream press coverage of this new reality in Iraq has been seriously limited, with fewer reporters in Iraq generally, fewer out in the field embedded with troops, and, frankly, overshadowed by the U.S. presidential campaign back home.

Diaz is the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion “Gimlets” of the 21st Infantry, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. At the time of this meeting in late January, the 2nd SBCT had only been in country for a little over a month, and was still going through the arduous process of getting to know the local power players—something that takes many meetings, gallons of tooth-achingly sweet chai, and lots of expressions of mutual trust, admiration, and respect.

You'll get a sense of some of the ploys that the SoIs use to try and work the relationship (as of course they do -- it's their job as tribal leaders), and how our officers and men on the ground keep that in check.

The platoon leader, Lieutenant Corbin, was standing nearby during one of these exchanges, and broke in to tell me that, “We can’t arm or supply them with arms, so one lump sum is paid to the commander, and then he’s supposed to trickle it down, $300 a month, and they skim off the top to pay for ammunition, food, water, tents, stuff like that. But that skimming usually goes in their pockets.” This probably isn’t as insidious as it sounds—Iraqi society is based on the Big Man, whether that man is a sheik, an SOI leader, or whomever, and skimming is simply a part of life.

Give the articles a read, and some congratulations to the author for getting out there and telling what it's really like.  We all benefit, military and journalist and citizen, from this kind of reporting.

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CJR and COIN, II: Some Good Stuff

Having earlier posted a minor complaint with CJR's foray into reporting on COIN operations, I think it's only fair to point out that the two last pieces have been very good.  You might want to read Paul McCleary's latest two pieces, which are the kind of frontline, embedded reporting I am only too glad to see.

Diaz and Sheik Hussein are still feeling each other out, performing the slow dance that Arab culture dictates strongmen perform with each other—complimenting, then pushing, declaring friendship, then starting all over again. “I purposefully have met with very few people in the first couple weeks,” Diaz tells him, “because I first want to meet with important people.” The sheik, this implies, is one of these important people. It’s a nice gambit in this year-old counterinsurgency campaign that places emphasis on building relationships at the local level, in hopes that each new brick will build a strong enough wall to keep law-abiding Iraqis on one side, and insurgents, terrorists, and foreign fighters on the other. Mainstream press coverage of this new reality in Iraq has been seriously limited, with fewer reporters in Iraq generally, fewer out in the field embedded with troops, and, frankly, overshadowed by the U.S. presidential campaign back home.

Diaz is the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion “Gimlets” of the 21st Infantry, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. At the time of this meeting in late January, the 2nd SBCT had only been in country for a little over a month, and was still going through the arduous process of getting to know the local power players—something that takes many meetings, gallons of tooth-achingly sweet chai, and lots of expressions of mutual trust, admiration, and respect.

You'll get a sense of some of the ploys that the SoIs use to try and work the relationship (as of course they do -- it's their job as tribal leaders), and how our officers and men on the ground keep that in check.

The platoon leader, Lieutenant Corbin, was standing nearby during one of these exchanges, and broke in to tell me that, “We can’t arm or supply them with arms, so one lump sum is paid to the commander, and then he’s supposed to trickle it down, $300 a month, and they skim off the top to pay for ammunition, food, water, tents, stuff like that. But that skimming usually goes in their pockets.” This probably isn’t as insidious as it sounds—Iraqi society is based on the Big Man, whether that man is a sheik, an SOI leader, or whomever, and skimming is simply a part of life.

Give the articles a read, and some congratulations to the author for getting out there and telling what it's really like.  We all benefit, military and journalist and citizen, from this kind of reporting.

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