■"Effort To Train New Iraqi Army Is Facing Delays: Key Posts Are Unfilled (Lag Is Laid to Complexity and Methodical Ways of the Pentagon)," by Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 20 September 2004, p. A2.
■"U.S. and Europe Expect to Reach Pact on Iraq Debt by End of Year," by Michael Schroeder, Wall Street Journal, 20 September 2004, p. A2.
A while back Central Command split the command structure in Iraq, basically going with one command that would focus on building up the provisional government's institutional capacity to restore order (the Sys Admin work) and a second that would focus on quelling the insurgency (the Leviathan job). The Sys Admin job is called the Multinational Security Transition Command (clear enough language, as far as I'm concerned), and the standing up of this body has been slow going from the start.
Three months into the effort, described by all as the highest priority task in Iraq right now (we've backed off from squelching the insurgency strongholds to gather our strength in this manner prior to a big December push preceding the hoped-for January elections), and less than half of the command's staff are in place. Who are they missing most? Lawyers and procurement experts. Here's what observers are saying:
Senior military officials in Washington and in the Persian Gulf region say the delay in filling the headquarters jobs stems from the Pentagon's methodicalósome say ploddingóapproach to establishing a new organization with the complex mission of preparing more than 250,000 members of the Iraqi police, border patrol, national guard and army for duty.
So what has Lt. Gen. David Petraeus resorted to in his quest to stand up his command? He has begged, borrowed and stolen from military commands all over the world, tapping even West Point and the British in Iraq. Plus he's relied extensively on contractors.
Petraeus has the toughest row to how, because his own Army evinces the greatest amount of resistance to the concepts embodied by the Sys Admin force. Yes, I know I get a lot of emails from younger officers who cite all the change from below, but it's the resistance at the top that worries meónot Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker but all those generals around in the Pentagon, plus all the "gray beards," or retired flags who now operate in all those Beltway Bandit think tanks that perform studies and analyses.
This resistance is only natural, because the Army's evolution toward the Sys Admin force will be the most painful of the four services (although the Navy, if it ever catches on, will realize it places a close second). So when people ask me, "How long will it take for the Pentagon to move toward the Sys Admin force?" I reply simply, "The speed of advance will be a function of the pain and failures we encounter in ongoing operations like Iraq."
It's both that simple and that sad.
On a better note, Europe and the U.S. seem set to forgive Iraq's debts by the end of the year. Why should that take more than a year and a half for the "West" to agree to? Pretty much an asinine argument over the exact percentage to be cut. The U.S. wants 90%, Europe 80%, and Russia more like 65%. This sort of chintzy debate over percentage points shows how little intra-Core unity exists over the question of what it will take to integrate Iraq into the global economy after many years of sanctions. Holding up this decision has only scared off foreign direct investment immeasurably over the course of the occupation.
This is yet another huge example of why the A-to-Z rule set inside the Core on how to process politically-bankrupt states within the Gap is so crucial. Negotiating this on a case-by-case basis in hugely inefficient, leading to these sorts of idiotic fights over pennies on the dollar. Meanwhile Iraq burns and American personnel are losing their lives as the Core's "great powers" diddle over how the financial "pain" is spread.
Then again, if you're not going to fund the Sys Admin force sufficiently, I guess there's not much of a hurry to forgive the country's debts, because FDI can't flow until both the market and military sides of this tightly-wound nexus are accounted for.