Maineman Right: Army wrote the book on Iraq--65 years ago

[Annie]

Some of MM's observations regarding Iraq in general were noted during WWII. However, in ways the plans of addressing the problems were also noted. Kinda interesting that one of my alma maters is the publisher. More confirmation of the nexus between history and today:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ok_07aug07,1,1920398.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

Army wrote the book on Iraq--65 years ago
WW II-era manual is being reprinted by U. of C. press

By Jodi S. Cohen

Tribune higher education reporter

August 7, 2007

The University of Chicago Press has a hot book on its hands, with some solid advice for U.S. military in Iraq:

Make friends with the Iraqis. Stay out of political and religious arguments. Try speaking in Arabic -- even if you're not good at it.

"American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the Iraqis ... like American soldiers or not," the book admonishes.

The advice, which sounds like it could be lifted from a lesson book from the war on terror, was actually written 65 years ago during World War II and recently discovered by the U. of C. Press. It's called "Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq During World War II."

Perhaps even more shocking than the book's discovery has been its success. Re-published just a few weeks ago and selling for $10 a copy, the book is already in its second printing and the press is planning for at least a third printing and probably more, a feat for any academic publisher more accustomed to narrow-interest academic and reference books.

A message on the amazon.com Web site on Monday said that only three copies of the book were left in stock -- but "more on the way."

"They all went out the door," said Carol Kasper, marketing director at the academic press. "We are bringing it out at a time when people are really disillusioned with the whole handling of the war. You look at something like this book and it's like: 'We knew that. How did this happen?'"

The book includes an updated foreword from Lt. Col. John A. Nagl, who served in Iraq with the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division. He writes about wishing he read the book before going to Iraq's Al Anbar province in 2003.

"Some of the guidance in this little book is eerie to anyone who has fought in Iraq recently," he wrote in the introduction. "It is almost impossible, when reading this guide, not to slap oneself on the forehead in despair that the Army knew so much of the Arabic culture and customs, and of the importance of that knowledge for achieving military success in Iraq, six decades ago -- and forgot almost all of those lessons in the intervening years."

Nagl says it would have been helpful to know that there could be an uptick in violence during the holy month of Ramadan, which he experienced during his unit's deployment. If military leaders had read the 1943 guide, they also may have better recognized the power of the tribal leaders, known as sheiks, and especially the importance of allying with the Sunni leaders.

"One of the recent successes we have had is bringing the Sunni tribes largely on board against Al Qaeda in Iraq," said Nagl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment in Ft. Riley, Kan. "We could have learned that earlier had we remembered our history more quickly."

During World War II, American soldiers were deployed to unfamiliar countries across the map, including Iraq, to help guard against Nazi infiltration. The U.S. Army prepared pocket guides that servicemen could tuck into their packs, with information about local customs, the currency and useful words and phrases. There were manuals about Britain, Australia, Germany, North Africa and even the Panama Canal.

The University of Oxford's Bodleian Library first had the idea to reprint the books when it published "Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain" in 2004. It sold 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom but only about 6,000 copies in the United States. The library published a few others, including one written for American military stationed in Australia.

"I said to the guy who handles publishing there, 'It would be really cool if they had one of these for Iraq,'" Kasper said. He replied that there was, and the Bodleian wasn't interested in publishing it because it was deemed too political...

 

[maineman]

why THANK you Kathianne!

 

[Annie]

why THANK you Kathianne!

I read this in the dead tree edition and thought of you!

 

[maineman]

do I conjur up images of dead trees, or vice versa?

 

[Annie]

do I conjur up images of dead trees, or vice versa?

 

[trobinett]

Maineman has always showed amazing insight when the subject was about the middle east.

The problems in the middle east are NOT the military's making, but the step child of the shameless politicians.

To think otherwise is to deign the obvious.

 

[maineman]

Maineman has always showed amazing insight when the subject was about the middle east.

The problems in the middle east are NOT the military's making, but the step child of the shameless politicians.

To think otherwise is to deign the obvious.

thank you for your kind words.

I would say that you could expand that statement to apply almost anywhere. I think the branches of the US military always try their utmost to successfully perform the missions which the politicians send them on. They always do so without batting an eye or complaining. They march themselves and their troops into harm's way and suffer whatever casualties they suffer without whining or bitching.

In that light, I think it is safe to say that the problems ANYWHERE in the world are NEVER of the MILITARY's MAKING - or even exacerbation - but ALWAYS the step children of shameless politicians.

As Tennyson wrote in "The Charge of the Light Brigade":

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.


The Battle of Balaclava WAS a terrible error on the part of the Brits.

The war in Iraq IS a terrible error on the part of the Bush administration.

The military has nothing to do with it. "Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do & die" and so far, 3679 of them have done & died for that blunder...

and still the chickenhawks wave their pompoms.

SHAME on all of them.