A Country is Made of People?
There are surely some lessons to be learned from the US adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps most important, re-building a country is more than just completing reconstruction projects. It is about connecting with and empowering people. This article about the reconstruction efforts in Iraq explains what I mean. This quote caught my eye.
… facilities, including hospitals, schools and prisons built with American funds, have remained empty long after they were completed because there were not enough Iraqis trained to operate them.
Is it the fault of the Iraqis? Not really. Consider this
American authorities have repeatedly failed to ask Iraqis what sort of projects they needed and have not followed up with adequate training.
This is what you get when transition planning is “top down” rather than “bottom up”. The bottom line — not much has been learned from 1990’s when the US last got involved in nation building in Eastern Europe.
If I were a US planner, I would start thinking about extending the period for handing over projects to insure that they can be sustained by the Iraqis. This would mean keeping joint control and providing technical assistance for a long, long time.
Why do it? Let’s set aside the moral argument. The US has something to gain here as well. It can start building its own learning curve in how transition and turn over should work.
FOLLOW - A welcome bit of news — the US military has a high level civilian political advisor whose job it is to connect to local institutions. Her name is Emma Sky. NYT reports. This quote caught my eye
Conversant in Arabic and Hebrew, Ms. Sky has worked in conflict zones from Israel to Afghanistan, has spent more time on the ground in Iraq than most soldiers and knows tribal leaders from the northern city of Kirkuk to the southern city of Basra.
“Emma was able to give me a completely different perspective: it was from an Iraqi viewpoint,” General Odierno said.