Institution Building in Iraq Isn’t Working, Here’s Why – Inkstick
Western nations have been involved to varying degrees in nation-building throughout the Middle East and Central Asia for over a century now. However, the success record is rather spotty. The war in Iraq and its aftermath is one of the latest examples of such an effort that has not gone as planned. There have been many analyses on why nation-building in Iraq has failed.Blithe assumptions and careless planninghas been blamed, as well as thepoor performance of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the transitional government of Iraq established after the US ground campaign.A lack of clear policyhas been another culprit. However, at the core of these failures lies Western nationsmisunderstanding of the unique culture of the nations that are being supported.
Growing up in two very different cultures, my parents Turkish and my environment German, I was acutely aware of what living in and between cultures entailed from a very young age. I leveraged these experiences during my time as a Mobile Training Team (MTT) commander in Iraq in 2019. In an effort to build on those experiences and the unique perspective gained, Id like to present some of my subjective observations on nation-building in Iraq today and share where I see potential for improvement.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE SKILLS FOR BETTER CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
Language is key to understanding a culture, but few members of Western militaries speak any Arabic. I am guilty of this myself. All the Arabic I speak, I picked up as a child in a multicultural environment, a complement to the Arabic loan words in the Turkish language. This situation leads to two problems.
First of all, it creates an unhealthy reliance and dependence on interpreters. In The American Military Advisor: Dealing with Senior Foreign Officials in the Islamic World, Michael J. Metrinko posits that:
[T]he ideal advisor should be fluent in the local language, but this ideal is rarely met. Professional relationships, accuracy, and security will all be affected by the advisors inability to speak the language. Most advisors use interpreters, making it difficult to establish a truly effective relationship with the senior local official they are advising.
This is not solely true for American advisors, but for any Western national engaging in nation-building. Metrinko goes on to define the problem with interpreters:
In the real world, the interpreter is more likely a local citizen who left his country decades in the past and has only returned on a contract, or someone whose parents are from the country in question and who learned the language from his family while growing up in America, or a local citizen who studied English in school. None of these is likely to be a formally trained interpreter, and, at best, the American advisor will be provided translation which will only be approximately correct. Facts, figures, and details will often be mistranslated, nuances of meaning may be totally lost.
This is an incredibly important point. Languages are complex, and the use of untrained interpreters who have very little knowledge in the subject matter will most probably lead to a loss of nuance, detail, and in the end, meaning. To illustrate this, let us take the Clausewitzian concept of Schwerpunkt. The German word Schwerpunkt means center of gravity, i.e. an objects center of gravity. In German doctrinal thinking (and the way Clausewitz meant it), the word Schwerpunkt means main effort. However, the US military has built a myriad of concepts around the idea of center of gravity, claiming to derive these ideas from Clausewitz when they are in fact far away from Schwerpunkt as Germans understand it. This misunderstanding and loss of nuance has developed between two closely related languages in close geographic proximity which have influenced each other for centuries. Imagine the potential for errors in languages as distinct as German and Arabic, or English and Pashto.
Languages are complex, and the use of untrained interpreters who have very little knowledge in the subject matter will most probably lead to a loss of nuance, detail, and in the end, meaning.
Second,you cannot understand a society if you cannot understand how its people view the world, and for that speaking the language is key. I have often witnessed how people from different cultures can fail to get along without any ill intent towards each other, solely due to the fact that their cultures judge different actions differently. Expand this to the level of nations, and it becomes even more problematic, like that one time President Clinton apologized for bombing the Chinese embassy in Belgrade while wearing a polo shirt, or when President Bush used the word crusade in his famous speech after 9/11. This lack of language and cultural understanding can also lead us to draw the wrong conclusions about how and why certain events take place, as might be happening with the Anbar Awakening, for example.
This situation is further compounded by the fact that European nations fail to tap into their pool of Arab immigrants and citizens with Arab heritage. Countries like France, Belgium, the Netherlands, or my own Germany have significant Arabic speaking populations, many of them the offspring of families that have lived there for many generations. Encouraging them to join the armed forces, not only as language interpreters but as full-fledged soldiers, will ensure that decisionmakers at all levels have access to this treasure trove of cultural knowledge.
IRAQI ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND THE RISE OF POPULAR MOBILIZATION FORCES
Efforts to provide a Western mantle for societies in the Middle East in general and Iraq specifically really took off with the break-up of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. This reorganization of societies with disregard to their underlying culture led to various degrees of failure. In the realm of militaries,the reasons why trying to organize Arab militaries along Western organizational thinking has failed are manifold, however, they can be reduced to one common denominator: utter and active ignorance of how various Arab societies are organized.
Ethnicity, tribe, region, religion, sect might not matter in our polities, they do matter a lot in many societies around the world, though. Thats whyIraqs Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have been so much more successful than the regular Iraqi army. Officially, the PMF were formed after the collapse of the Iraqi military in the wake of ISILs offensive to overtake Iraq. Iraqi cleric Ali al-Sistani had called the Iraqi people to rise and fight against ISIL. It is assumed that al-Sistani called Iraqis to join the military to support the fight. However, it seems like this was misunderstood and Iraqis self-organized into militias along tribal, religious, and ethnic lines. That is one part of the PMF. The other part consists of armed groups that existed in Iraq even before the current war with ISIL, some whom have fought against Coalition forces in the past (and some who still fight against Coalition forces). However, the PMF played an important role in the defeat of ISIL in Iraq.
The debate on how Western nations should deal with the PMF is still going on, but no matter how the debate goes, Western governments have to understand that trying to force Western organizational structures and thinking onto Iraqi society will not lead to the hoped-for success.
THE VALUE OF EDUCATION VS. GETTING MORE STUFF
Western nations, especially European nations, are really interested in infusing their know-how into the Iraqi military. The problem is that most Iraqi soldiers are not interested in Western know-how. Many Iraqis just dont see the same value in the training that we can provide them as we do. The reasons for that are beyond the scope of this article and in the end, they dont matter. What matters is that we are trying to sell something which Iraqis have no interest in buying. Mind you, most will never say this to someones face. They are way too polite to do so.
However, there is one thing we can offer that the Iraqi military is interested in: stuff. The Iraqi military is interested in all the gear Western nations can provide, the more Gucci the gear, the better.Never mind the complexity of these systems and that training is necessary to learn how to use them. It seems to me like Iraqi planners and officers accept the training provided by Western nations as the price they have to pay to get the gear.
Many in the West might be wondering:what happened with Iraqs oil revenue?Iraq was OPECs second-largest oil exporter in 2018, after all. Incidentally,many Iraqis have been asking the same question. Very little of these oil revenues trickle down to the units on the ground. When visiting Iraqi military installations, the state of disrepair and decay almost immediately catches the eye. Here lies the opportunity for Western nations to bring change: instead of offering training that is unwanted or handing over complex gear that needs lots of maintenance and training, Western nations can help the Iraqi military with infrastructure projects: buildings, air conditioners, sanitary facilities, classrooms, etc. This is a win-win situation for everybody. Western nations get to help Iraq in a direct, measurable, and highly visible way. Iraqi soldiers get an improvement in living quality. Nobody has to sit through classes they dont see value in, and nobody has to teach classes which are not interesting to the audience.
Efforts by Western nations to help the Iraqi military, even if they are well-intentioned, often spring from ignorance of Iraqs society and culture. There are better ways to help Iraq, but it is important to learn the language, understand the society, and tailor solutions to their needs.There are civilian organizations that are already doing thisand can serve as an example. Otherwise, we are simply wasting taxpayers money and our soldiers time.
Ilhan Akcay is a German infantry officer with a BSc and MSc in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Munich. He writes about training and readiness on his blog School of War. All opinions expressed in this article are his own and his only.
Continued here:
Institution Building in Iraq Isn't Working, Here's Why - Inkstick
- Iraq Is Substantially Upgrading Its Helicopter Fleet And Air Defense - Forbes - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- IDF intercepts 'suspicious aerial target' over Red Sea; Iran-backed group in Iraq claims attack - The Times of Israel - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- From Iraq to Gaza: Are protests and outrage futile? - The Indian Express - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- Turkey Wants to Stitch Iraq and Syria Back Together (Part 1) - The Washington Institute - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- Iraq Is Threatening to Roll Back Womens Rights - Foreign Policy - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- What will actually happen to the American forces in Iraq? - Responsible Statecraft - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- The Tactical Knife that Saved a Medal of Honor Recipients Life During Intense Hand-to-Hand Combat in Iraq - Military.com - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- Princess Fazile, modern Cinderella left bereft by the assassination of her fianc, the King of Iraq - The Telegraph - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- Wrapping up mission, US troops will leave some longstanding bases in Iraq under new deal - The Associated Press - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- After Houthis, 'Al Arqab' Cruise Missile Attack On Israel From Iraq; IDF Says 'Didn't' | Hezbollah - Hindustan Times - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- The U.S. Should Fully Withdraw From Iraq - TIME - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US to end anti-ISIL operation in Iraq but unclear if troops will remain - Al Jazeera English - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US-led task force to fight ISIS in Iraq to end by 2026, officials say - Defense News - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US announces coalition mission in Iraq to end by 2025, but US not withdrawing - Breaking Defense - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Inherent Resolve Mission in Iraq and Syria Transitioning - Department of Defense - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Teenage girl dies after collapsing halfway through flight from Iraq to China - The Independent - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Wrapping up mission, US troops will leave some longstanding bases in Iraq under new deal - Madison.com - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US troops to stay in Iraq as anti-ISIS forces shift within the country - Stars and Stripes - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US and Iraq say American-led military coalition to end mission by end of September 2025 - The Times of Israel - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- This Is the Iraq War on Steroids. Journalist Mehdi Hasan on Israel, Gaza and the Media - Democracy for the Arab World Now - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Iraq executed 21 people convicted of terrorism on Wednesday, two security sources say - Reuters - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Drone from Iraq hits Eilat port, causing damage and lightly injuring two - The Times of Israel - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Rep. McCaul Blasts Potential Withdrawal of US Troops from Iraq, as US Officials Remain Tight-Lipped - Kurdistan24 - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims drone attack on Eilat - The Times of Israel - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Tugendhat rebuked for saying invading Iraq was naughtiest thing he did - The Independent - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- No longer welcome, the US is reluctantly getting out of Iraq - Washington Examiner - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US to pull troops from parts of Iraq but some will remain for years to come - The National - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Teenage girl dies after collapsing halfway through flight from Iraq to China - MSN - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US-led task force to fight ISIS in Iraq to end by 2026, officials say - AirForceTimes.com - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US Officials: United States is not Withdrawing from Iraq - Kurdistan24 - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Iraq - General Assembly of the United Nations General Debate - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- Israel could learn from our Iraq operations, by former US general - The Times - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- IDF intercepts cruise missiles, drones fired from Iraq at north and south - The Times of Israel - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- CCTV Captures Drone From Iraq Slamming Into Israel's Eilat; Sends Sparks Flying | Hezbollah War - The Times of India - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- UK's airstrikes against ISIS to cease following conclusion of mission in Iraq - Forces News - September 28th, 2024 [September 28th, 2024]
- US to announce plan to draw down troops in Iraq - POLITICO - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- U.S. and Iraq Agree to Withdraw Nearly All American Troops by the End of 2026 - The Wall Street Journal - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- US anticipates announcement to cut back troops in Iraq next week - The Hill - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Iraq Militia Battling US Troops Is 'Not Convinced' Biden Ready To Withdraw - Newsweek - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- US expected to announce military drawdown in Iraq while ISIS missions continue - Washington Examiner - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Iraq Acquiring KM-SAM II Systems - Aviation Week - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- US Seeks New Deal With Iraq After Baghdad Says Troops Not Needed - Bloomberg - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Transition Of Operation Inherent Resolve To US-Iraq Bilateral Security Partnership To Be Announced Next Week - Eurasia Review - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- National Strategy for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in Iraq (2024 - 2030) [EN/AR] - ReliefWeb - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- REACH conference 2024: Transforming healthcare in Iraq - Iraqi News - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- US allegedly agrees to pull out from Iraq by 2027 - baha news - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Talk of U.S. Iraq Withdrawal Is Disconnected From ISIS Threat - RealClearDefense - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Iraq Telecom Wins $3B in Arbitral Awards against former Kurdish Partner - Law.com International - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Reflections on Experiences of the International Labour Organization: Towards Promoting Decent Employment for Public Works Programmes in Iraq - ILO - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Iran-Backed Militias Strengthen Presence in Iraq as Tensions Rise in the Region - Iran News Update - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Syrian Opposition Outlet: Dozens Of Houthi Drone And Missile Specialists Arrive In Syria From Iraq - Middle East Media Research Institute - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Talk of US Iraq withdrawal is disconnected from ISIS threat - Military Times - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Drone intercepted near Sea of Galilee was launched from Iraq, says IDF - The Times of Israel - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Iraq touts deal with U.S. to withdraw most troops by 2026 - The Washington Post - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Once Considered Foes, Iranian-Backed Groups Get a Warm Welcome From Iraq - The New York Times - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Book on history of Iran-Iraq war to be unveiled at University of Tehran - Tehran Times - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Talk of US Iraq withdrawal is disconnected from ISIS threat - Foundation for Defense of Democracies - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- National Strategy for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in Iraq - United Nations Development Programme - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Iraq to announce timeframe for the withdrawal of coalition forces - Middle East Monitor - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Houthis, Hamas open offices in Baghdad: How Iran won over Iraq with 2,500 US troops in the country - Firstpost - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- KCK calls on Iraq to take a stand against Turkeys attacks and renounce the agreement with Turkey - ANF English - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Iraq launches national strategy to protect the environment - Iraqi News - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Watch What Closer Ties Between Iraq and Iran Mean for the West - Bloomberg - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Iraq Thinks Its Time for US Troops to Go Home - Bloomberg - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- US blames Iran-linked groups for Tuesday attack on Iraq diplomatic compound - The Times of Israel - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- France, Italy, Spain Win Key EU Roles; Iraq PM on US Troops | Bloomberg The Pulse 09/17/24 - Bloomberg - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- Not Hezbollah, Biggest Revenge Threat For Lebanon Blasts By This New Group | Israel | Iraq | Iran - Hindustan Times - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- End of US military presence in Iraq to be announced 'soon': Sudani - The Cradle - September 19th, 2024 [September 19th, 2024]
- What JD Vance did in Iraq, as told by the friend who served with him - The Independent - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- Iraq Wheat Production Up 21%, Official Says, Amid Ample Rainfall - Bloomberg - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- Five people killed in drone strike on vehicle in Syria-Iraq border - The Jerusalem Post - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- Five arrested over attack that wounded US troops in Iraq air base, statement says - Voice of America - VOA News - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- Five arrested over Iraq airbase attack that wounded US troops, Iraq officials say - Reuters - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- What to Make of Recent Attacks on Coalition Bases in Iraq and Syria? - The Washington Institute - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- US troops injured in attack in Iraq as tensions in region increase - POLITICO - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- Houthi drone expert among those killed in U.S. strike in Iraq - The Washington Post - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- Seven US personnel injured in Monday rocket attack at Al Asad airbase in Iraq, including two evacuated for further care - CNN - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- Vance Attacks Walzs Military Record, Accusing Him of Avoiding a Tour in Iraq - The New York Times - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- US personnel injured in attack on Al Asad airbase in Iraq - BBC.com - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]
- Iraq-Born Austrian Auteur Kurdwin Ayub Keeps It Provocative With Moon: I Want to Trigger People - Hollywood Reporter - August 11th, 2024 [August 11th, 2024]