Iraq: "In the end they'll need to follow our plan, but we've got to make them feel it's their plan"

[bigtree]

By Ann M. Simmons
Los Angeles Times
December 31, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/12/31/in_sunni_enclave_safety_hinges_on_empowering_civilians/



{snip}

Army Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Rohling, commander of the 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, and a Milwaukee native, sat listening to the elders' requests. Careful not to use a threatening tone, he explained to the leaders that meeting their demands for improvements to checkpoints, more men and more pay, would require the contracts for the concerned local citizens groups that guard their neighborhoods to be renegotiated.

"What we're struggling with now is, how do you make it fair for everybody?" Rohling said. And more important, he told the leaders, was figuring out how gradually to move some of the armed volunteer guards into other jobs, such as the national police force.

"Because I think we all agree, we can't pay volunteers for the rest of their lives," Rohling said.

Again, there were nods of agreement along with noncommittal stares.

"A lot of what you get is posturing," Rohling said later of the leaders. He acknowledged that he often has to combine softer diplomacy with military assertiveness to coax and cajole some local leaders to cooperate.

"It's a cultural challenge," the US commander added. "In the end they will need to follow our plan, but we've got to make them feel that it's their plan . . ."


article: http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/12/31/in_sunni_enclave_safety_hinges_on_empowering_civilians/


I can't help but severely question, why a U.S. Lieutenant Colonel is allowed to shape the direction of what they inevitably call Iraq's 'democracy' on such an intimate level. It's even more disturbing to read his open admission that the U.S. military intends to follow and violently enforce their own agenda (plan; checkpoints, raids, arrests) no matter what the locals decide or want.


related: US Military Continues Push for al-Qaeda in Iraq
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-30-voa19.cfm?rss=topstories

[bullimiami]

1. thats what its been from the beginning.

make the only choice the neocon dream plan for iraq and say it was their choice.

[tanyev]

2. It's the new definition of sovereignty.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Stupid--our soldiers exist to kill people and break things, and

maybe can serve as a temporary police force. They should NOT be used for wheeling and dealing and running interference between tribes. This is NOT the role of the military.

[bigtree]

9. this is way out of their league

the Iraqis will be setting up authorities as fast as they're knocking them down. It's mindless to imagine that these little manipulations behind the intimidation of our military will be either productive or lasting. It's past time for our troops to come out of there.

[wtmusic]

4. No, in the START they will make us feel it's our plan

but in the end they will kick our ass out of their country. Mission Accomplished.

[LynnTheDem]

5. The little brown people in Iraq need us to tell them how to live.

We know what's best for them.

:eyes:

[bigtree]

7. and, they'd better fall in line . . .

. . . or, else!

[NNN0LHI]

8. Why they would be completely lost without us taking care of their oil for them n/t

[KG]

6. matters not. in the end the US will leave or be kicked out.

and the iraqi's will make the US feel like it was their plan.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

10. We are certainly very good at one thing: insulting the hell out of human beings.

I'm just speechless.

dayum