Friday night in Baghdad. Good Friday, actually, now that I think about it. Quite a few religious occasions to keep track of here - part of the cosmic background radiation of this place. The sound of the call to prayer from mosques across the city echoes over the t-walls and into the IZ. Time in Baghdad is often compared to Groundhog Day. Endless repeats of the same day, the joke goes. Except that here our Groundhog Day is a repeat of some sort of High Holy Holiday. (A redundancy?) Yesterday was the Prophet Mohammed's Birthday. Big holiday. And we've got the Easter weekend. Purim this week for my Jewish friends. There's a pretty regular group that gets together for Shabbat services and dinner at the Palace every Friday evening. Another one of those things we say "I bet Saddam never thought THAT would happen in his Palace..." Along with Karaoke Night at his pool every Wednesday.
I was a guest lecturer at the Counterinsurgency Course held here for incoming Army leaders last week. General Petraeus launched the COIN school (the standard abbreviation) to better disseminate the information in the new Army Manual for COIN and generate more serious discussion on the theory and practice of counterinsurgency operations among his officers and NCOs. Leaders of units arriving in theater spend a few days at the course before heading to their areas of operations. It's a good initiative, and one which I wish involved more of my State Department and USAID colleagues. As a member of a PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) I'm part of an interagency team working to build the capacity of Baghdad's government to serve its citizens equitably, effectively and transparently. By helping to legitimate the government in the eyes of the populace, we're really at the forefront of what is considered counterinsurgency operations. Most people look at COIN from a purely military perspective (including many of my PRT colleagues) but in actuality it must be seen as the full-spectrum effort that incorporates all aspects of securing, stabilizing and developing Baghdad. With the gains we've seen in the security environment recently we've been gaining traction in many of our 'soft' efforts to support good governance and economic development.
Part of the discussion I led, with a colleague working in an office that works on strategic planning for the Embassy, was focused on exactly the kinds of successes we are seeing with the political and economic initiatives gaining ground since security started to improve last fall. More than a few of the Army leaders in our course are returning to Iraq for their second, and sometimes third, tour and it was very productive to have a discussion on what has and hasn't worked in Iraq over the past five years. Believe it or not, we are getting better at managing the colossal challenge that is Iraq, and we are learning from our successes and failures. If I accomplish nothing else in the few extra weeks that I've decided to spend here I hope to communicate the lessons of these successes and failures to those who follow behind me. I owe it to our soldiers, I owe it to my colleagues, I owe it to the American taxpayer, and I owe it to the Iraqi people.
