9:48 PM - The Army Knew Iraq About 60 Years Ago
ããAll over the world
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1943, U.S. servicemen stationed in Iraq were issued a pocket-size
41-page book entitled A Short Manual to Iraq. In straightforward
prose, the book gave American soldiers a primer to assist them
through the cultural snarls and byways of the country in which they
were stationed. They discovered a little history, a bit geography
and a smattering of vocabulary and grammar.In light of what we know
about Iraq and the Middle East today, the books contents appear a
little slight. But when you reflect on what Americans knew about a
then-obscure corner with the globe in 1943, it appears like a
godsend. Back then there was no tv to beam a countrys culture into
residing rooms around the world. You couldnt Google Iraq and learn
fundamental history and culture around the fly. A Brief Manual to
Iraqrecently republished by the University of Chicago Press as
Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq Throughout Globe War
IIfilled a big gap in the understanding of American troops in Iraq,
and its overall message was definitely admirable: You arent going
to Iraq to alter the Iraqis. Just the opposite. We're fighting this
war to preserve the principle of reside and let live. Perhaps that
sounded like lots of words to you at home. Now you have an
opportunity to show it to yourself and other people. In the event
you can, its going to become a much better globe to reside in for
all of us.More than and more than, the book offers guidance built
on the twin notions of tolerance and respect:Bread towards the
Moslems is holy. Dont throw scraps of it about or let it fall on
the ground.In a home or a tent, stick to the rule of your host. If
he takes off his footwear on getting into, do exactly the same.Some
of the guidance is embarrassingly dated, not a lot in what it says
as how it says it: If you should see grown men walking hand in
hand, ignore it. They are not queer'. Some of it is, in light of
contemporary conditions, laughably understated: The Iraqis have
some religious and tribal differences amongst themselves. But to
their credit, the anonymous authors of this book by no means
attempt to oversimplify or make something out to be much less
complex than it's: It's a good idea in any foreign country to
prevent any religious or political discussions. This really is even
truer in Iraq than most nations, simply because it occurs that
right here the Moslems themselves are divided into two factions
something like our division into Catholic and Protestant
denominationsso dont place in your two cents worth when Iraqis
argue about religion. You will find also political variations in
Iraq which have puzzled diplomats and statesmen.In his introduction
towards the new edition with the Brief Guide, Lt. Col. John Nagl
reserves his highest praise for your spacea quarter with the
bookdevoted to Arabic. It is not possible to construct personal
relationships with local leaders, police chiefs and Iraqi army
officers with out becoming in a position to engage in dialogue with
them, writes Nagl, who was stationed in Iraq in 2003-2004, but
capable, reliable interpreters had been my scarcest resource.Nagl
sounds downright wistful when he laments not getting a guidebook
like this 1 when he went to Iraq 4 many years ago: Because the
month of fasting known as Ramadan approached in November 2003, I
would have appreciated knowing that Moslem tempers are extremely
brief during this month as yours could be under similar
circumstancesand perhaps I would have been much better prepared for
the surge of violence that marked this celebration in our
sector.According to Col. Steven Mains, Nagl should happen to be
given written info on Iraq when he was there, information collected
and published from the U.S. Armys Center for Army Lessons
Discovered (Contact). This kind of informationfacts about the
culture, directions on survival techniqueswas becoming disseminated
at the time, according to Mains, the centers director. Produced in
1985, Call operates in part like a sort of permanent feedback loop,
taking the knowledge discovered by soldiers on the ground and
relaying it back to the center, exactly where it can be organized
and published to educate raw recruits. Every branch of the military
now has its personal version of Contact, which publishes about 110
titles yearly and this year published 3 different editions of a
survival guide known as The very first 100 DaysSoldier Handbook,
with most of the guidance coming from fight veterans.Mains says he
has no concept why the info ready by the Army by no means reached
Nagl in the field. Clearly it was not for want of trying. Call
spends around $16 million annually in the name of better educating
Army personnel. And truly, the question is not so much whether or
not the Army understands Iraq but whether or not or not the
individuals who sent the Army to Iraq realize that country. As Nagl
perceives so well, the people who wrote the 1943 bookletand by
extension the government behind themwanted two things: they wanted
to win the war and they wanted to complete it honorably. That's,
they didn't wish to sacrifice or shortcut American values, and if
we believed we had been much better than the Nazis, we had to show
it to our allies.It is almost impossible, Nagl writes, when reading
this manual, not to slap oneself around the forehead in despair
that the Army knew a lot of Arabic culture and customs, and with
the significance of that knowledge for achieving military success
in Iraq, six decades agoand forgot almost all of those lessons in
the intervening many years. The only thing wrong with that
statement is the fact that Nagl did not aim his criticism a little
greater. It wasnt the Army that thought such understanding was
ineffective, it was the individuals above themthe Wolfowitzes,
Cheneys, Feiths and Rumsfeldswho behaved as though none of that
mattered when they ordered the Army into Iraq.The chief worth of
Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq During Globe War II is
the fact that it reminds us that there was a time, not so lengthy
ago, when America anticipated its troops abroad to become not just
brave and resourceful fighters but also upstanding citizens who had
been anticipated to become generous, kind and respectful of other
people and other culturesmodel Americans, in other words. No wonder
they called it the good war.Trend of the
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