Posted on Jun 28, 2016
What did you learn about Afghanistan and Iraq?
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Clausewitz Trinity is a grand slam.
I will now endeavor to paint the picture of what happened. Carl Von Clausewitz developed his paradigm of war call the Trinity: Passion of the people, Rational approach of the government, and the Military Genius. Lets use this to define Iraq.
1. Passion of the people is hatred between the Sunnis, Shia, and the government. Currently ISIS occupy Sunni controlled cities as safe havens.
2. Rational approach of the government failed as it was corrupt and it discriminated against the Sunnis.
3. The genius of the military never was. It was fraught with corruption, poor leadership, fake soldier accounts to siphon money, and the general lack of understanding that equipment, vehicles, and weapons systems need maintenance.
I will now endeavor to paint the picture of what happened. Carl Von Clausewitz developed his paradigm of war call the Trinity: Passion of the people, Rational approach of the government, and the Military Genius. Lets use this to define Iraq.
1. Passion of the people is hatred between the Sunnis, Shia, and the government. Currently ISIS occupy Sunni controlled cities as safe havens.
2. Rational approach of the government failed as it was corrupt and it discriminated against the Sunnis.
3. The genius of the military never was. It was fraught with corruption, poor leadership, fake soldier accounts to siphon money, and the general lack of understanding that equipment, vehicles, and weapons systems need maintenance.
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
MSG (Join to see)
CPT Joseph K Murdock -
1) From a military point of view.....it was a huge case of fraud waste and abuse. DFACs......staffed by both military AND TCNs with the TCNs doing the cooking (under a KBR government contract) while the military just walked around and apparently supervised (according to one PFC I had asked). Motorpools.....had a mechanic that was organic to my unit but was told that he is to do no more than 10 level maintenance (and really not even then) less he get a FG Article 15 because there is a maintenance shop ran by government contractors to do the work. Butt load of Infantry, Tankers, MPs on the base I was at.....yet the base security was handled by very trigger nervous Ugandans. I could keep going but I won't;
2) Culturally........interesting to say the least.
1) From a military point of view.....it was a huge case of fraud waste and abuse. DFACs......staffed by both military AND TCNs with the TCNs doing the cooking (under a KBR government contract) while the military just walked around and apparently supervised (according to one PFC I had asked). Motorpools.....had a mechanic that was organic to my unit but was told that he is to do no more than 10 level maintenance (and really not even then) less he get a FG Article 15 because there is a maintenance shop ran by government contractors to do the work. Butt load of Infantry, Tankers, MPs on the base I was at.....yet the base security was handled by very trigger nervous Ugandans. I could keep going but I won't;
2) Culturally........interesting to say the least.
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MSG (Join to see)
CPT Joseph K Murdock - In comparison of govt contractors getting paid up to and possibly exceeding 100K to do a job that a SPC getting paid 40K for the same year......
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LTC Paul Labrador
MSG (Join to see) - Contractor is not afforded life insurance by the government, any health care delivered is charged to the contracting company, there is no training costs involved with a contract, you are not paying for their dependents, contract personnel do not go against troop caps and when the contract is over, there is no residual costs involved. Which is the opposite of that SPC. So yeah, while that contractor in the short term may be temporarily more expensive, in the long run, it is cheaper to use a contractor than to maintain a large scale capability in uniform.
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That neither of them were or are worth a pile of camel shit. Not one damn thing about those two ethnic peoples, their prehistoric cultures and mentality, nor their standing in the world was worth one drop of American blood. Not. One. Single. Drop.
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