« And the Nominees Are... | Main | Building a Better Army: Leaders »

December 03, 2004

That Can't Be Good

One of the most frustrating aspects of the Iraq war is that it's so difficult to know what the real situation is on the ground. The media does its best, but I'm somewhat leery of normal reporting simply because reporters just don't understand the military. I don't discount everything they say, of course, but I don't think they're necessarily able to give us the full picture, particularly since each reporter only sees a narrow slice of what is happening in Iraq. I've also got two good friends in Iraq, but they don't have the opportunity to write as often as I would prefer, and they have a narrow view of the situation as well. Trying to assemble a cogent narrative from those various snapshots tends to leave the reader unsure how close the picture he's assembled is to reality.

That having been said, this note doesn't inspire much confidence in our current position in Iraq. Assuming this is legitimate, the writer is apparently responsible for providing water to the entire country of Iraq, and the level of experience she seems to have seems disturbingly low given the importance of her job. Worse, however, is her description of how bad conditions are where she lives: she can't go out on the economy, and she's required to wear her flak jacket whenever she is outside the buildings. She's so inured to rocket and mortar attacks, she doesn't even flinch at them any longer. If these are the circumstances under which the government of Iraq has to work, it suggests that we can't even secure one of our most critical C2 nodes. What does that say about the rest of the country?

Winning in Iraq isn't going to be easy under any circumstances. But if the government offices can so easily be threatened, it's hard to argue we're having the kind of success we need for ultimate success.

Hat tip: Unqualified Offerings