Iraq Training Team Commander Expresses Confidence Iraqis Will Succeed

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2007 – Iraq’s military forces are committed to standing on their own, the officer in charge of their training told bloggers June 28, and he expressed confidence that Iraq’s army, navy, air force and police will succeed. “What we do see from the Iraqis is a commitment to continuing to improve and a desire and a passion to be more responsible for all things military,” Army Brig. Gen. Terry Wolff, commander of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team, said during a teleconference from Iraq. “They very much want to be able to do this themselves.”

The Coalition Military Assistance Training Team is the military training arm of the Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq. The command was formed to help the Iraqi government train, mentor and equip Iraq's security forces. Wolff’s team operates from two training centers in Iraq.

With each passing day, Wolff said, he is seeing the Iraqi forces take shape and evolve as they gain confidence in their decision making. “They are making decisions. With every day they are more in charge,” Wolff said.

Wolff added that while he may not agree with some of those decisions, he is still encouraged.

“They tend to make decisions that we don’t always agree with, but so be it. In many of those instances, they don’t reflect a lack of desire or will; they reflect the fact that they’re going to choose courses of action that may be just a bit different than the way we would do that.

“I cannot find fault with that, but that’s the nature of sovereignty and the ability to make decisions for yourself and then have to deal with those consequences,” Wolff added. “I continue to be encouraged by the fact that they are trying to improve.”

The improvements of the Iraqi forces as they work toward autonomy are dealt with on many fronts, from leadership to logistics.

“We’ve had a lot of luck continuing to work with the Iraqi leaders to get them to better embrace some of the logistical challenges they have to work through,” Wolff explained. “They’re standing up a support command, which was something that we were working with them on, but we’re getting a little closer to get the headquarters portion of it stood up. But the first step is getting our Iraqi brothers to buy into this and recognize its importance and utility, and they’ve begun to do that.”

Transitioning the Iraqi military’s vehicle fleet from contracted maintenance to their own repair shops is another challenge.

“They’re trying to work through their maintenance challenges,” Wolff said. “We have helped provide them over 14,000 vehicles, and now we’re trying to help work with them to get them off a maintenance system which was mostly contracted to one in which they’re going to do the maintenance themselves,” Wolff said, adding the transition time for the turnover could take eight to 12 months.

While a lot of the training and build-up of a support force is happening behind the scenes, establishing a regional base logistical system to support the front lines is another priority.

“Some of the warehouses that they tend to operate from are a little further to the east than where the division’s parent base is,” he explained. “We helped establish a regional base logistical system for them, and what grows a little more complex is when you’re using more of the force in an area that’s a distance away from where that geographical base is.

“Higher-level division logistical officers are supposed to be looking out for that, so no soldier on the battlefield runs out of anything. I mean, that’s the goal, is to make sure the fighting man’s got everything he needs,” Wolff said.

As the fight continues, Wolff said he and his transition team of coaches, teachers and mentors strive to give the Iraqi forces everything they need to succeed.

“To some extent, I think we all have a greater hope that the Iraqis continue to improve. We all want them to be better, and their leaders want them to be better too. There’s no lack of desire here,” Wolff said.

The general added he gets encouragement from the people around him. “My thanks go to all those great coalition soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that continue doing this job every single day, and so they are who encourage me even more than my Iraqi brothers,” the general said.

As dull as this might sound, this is perhaps some of the most important training and organization we can possibly give the Iraqis.

Tom Clancy really nailed it when he said that “Colonels argue tactics, but Generals argue logistics.”

While there are many contenders among the armies of the world for weaponry and sheer numbers, the real world class armies have two things that sets them apart.

First is a divisional command structure that can effectively coordinate operations. Most large armies have brigades organized into divisions, but they are only paper divisions, they cannot conduct effective divisional operations.

But the divisions of those armies that do have effective operations can defeat two or three times their number of non-coordinated divisions. That is, five brigades can beat 10 to 15 equivalently armed enemy brigades, just by dint of effective divisional operations.

Thank you, General W.T. Sherman, who created the US Command and General Staff College.

And for three years now, we have been organizing and training the Iraqi Army to have such an effective divisional command, trained in several division level exercises. Perhaps the only one in the region other than Israel.

The other thing that sets world class armies apart is that they understand support and logistics. Especially with the Iraqi Air Force, we rebuilt them from the ground up emphasizing the use of aircraft to support Iraqi Army logistical operations. One of their first trained units was to transport equipment and supplies in cargo aircraft.

Every other country in the region has fighter pilots, but they are terribly weak in maintenance and air support operations. It is not macho enough for their tastes.

But the Iraqis are being taught the invaluable lesson that for every soldier they field, his effectiveness will be multiplied if he is supported from the rear area. He will be able to travel further, fight harder, return to the fight faster, and have the weapons and equipment he needs to do the job right.

The bottom line is that the US has given the Iraqis far more training then they need to protect their nation from insurgents and terrorists. We have trained them to fend off a full scale invasion from Iran. And they are near to accomplishing that goal.

Even Turkey would be very hard pressed in a fight against the Iraqi Army, as the Iraqis can field a lot of very seasoned troops practiced in intense ground warfare.

For a few more months, the US military has the authority to do whatever is necessary to make sure that nobody will ever be able to mess with Iraq again.

I find this posted article and your thoughts anything but “dull.” The day Iraqis can train, equip and supply other Iraqis is the day the bulk of our forces come home. As it is, the lack of a reliable operational capability is hampering Iraqi handover efforts far more than the tactical capability of the average Iraqi soldier. If the media were more interested in providing information than opinion, the Colonel quoted would be as well known as Petraeus. As it is, the milbloggers have the good fortune to have them for themselves.

Thank you and SandRat for posting.

Well trained, yes, but to US standards, no. One thing those we have trained realize is that the last thing in the world they would want to do is fight us. This is because they learn that the US forces they are so impressed with are just the tip of the iceberg of US might.

Years ago, I talked with an educated Lebanese, an engineer, who was perplexed why the US supported Israel. He had seen the terrible might of the Israeli army in action, and knew that the US spent over half its defense budget supporting Israel. Were it not for US support, Israel would collapse overnight.

I tried to correct him, to explain how just the tiniest of a fraction of 1% of our defense budget is spent on Israel, and how it is almost always just a loan, and one the Israelis dutifully pay back every year. And the Israelis can do just fine without any of our aid.

He refused to listen to that. He could not stand to even imagine such a thing. It was intolerable information. It would not only mean that everything he had been taught was a lie, but it was unacceptable to even try to imagine how very HUGE the US military is. It just couldn’t be.

I then realized that most of the people who live in the Middle East think the same thing. And that is why Saddam and now Iran are so belligerent to the US. They just can’t grasp that Israel has done almost all it has done, and live as prosperously as they do, based on their own hard work.

The US must be totally subsidizing Israel. They must pay Israel millions of dollars for every one of their citizens to live in wealth like they do, and for their military to utterly crush Arab armies, like they do.

And they calculate that the US military is perhaps a little larger than Israel’s military, but not by much. So they compare raw numbers and think that their military isn’t that much weaker than the US. And that they would have the “home field advantage” if we fight.

And besides, Allah is on their side.

No, I truly doubt that the army of Iraq will ever again fight the US military. Though they are patriotic as all get out, there just won’t be any argument around for them to ever think otherwise.

No, I truly doubt that the army of Iraq will ever again fight the US military. Though they are patriotic as all get out, there just won’t be any argument around for them to ever think otherwise.

Actually, I think there is an even bigger reason why they won't in years to come (if we can just hang in there). I worked in Germany for a year or so with men who grew up in the post-WWII years. The ones who grew up in the Soviet sectors were not very friendly. The ones who grew up in the American sectors knew English well (including some not very polite words), and remembered fondly the GIs who gave them chocolate and taught them baseball. They are really pro-American.

Recruiting Iraqi kids who have gotten backpacks & school supplies from our military men (mostly soldiers and marines, I think) to fight American troops will be difficult at best.

Our military is the best in the world for fighting wars when they have to, and they're really great at caring for children all over the world.

You know...it’s all well said and it sounds good..on paper but there is one little thing that we all forget: US army can train them even ‘till Judgement day but it can’t give them heart’s. lol.. They don’t know why they are fighting, most of them are there just for the paycheck. Try to explain for democracy and freedom :they never have seen that in their lifetime, if you show them the American way of life it looks like a dream and after that they look around and see what? You know what I mean? It’s very hard for me to admit but IRAQI army willing and able looks like lost cause to me.....like the South Vietnamese army in the past.

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