The right way to do Iraq, and the wrong way
Two excerpts from my new book The Gamble are running in the Washington Post Sunday and Monday. There also are some cool on-line only things — not just another excerpt, but also a great video about how one officer, Capt. Samuel Cook of the 3rd Armored Cavalry, conducted counterinsurgency operations in one part of Iraq ...
Two excerpts from my new book The Gamble are running in the Washington Post Sunday and Monday. There also are some cool on-line only things -- not just another excerpt, but also a great video about how one officer, Capt. Samuel Cook of the 3rd Armored Cavalry, conducted counterinsurgency operations in one part of Iraq last year. (To read more about how Cook talked an insurgent leader into cooperation, read this excerpt from the book, a section called "The Insurgent Who Loved Titanic.")
This video, by contrast, strikes me as an example of how not to do it. The American officer might have an excuse for talking like this, but everything I've seen about Iraqis tells me that publicly disparaging them is not the way to go. This motivational speech reminds me of the way Marine sergeants were talking to Iraqi army soldiers in the spring of 2004, just before the soldiers mutinied and refused to go to Fallujah.
And for those who missed it, here (in two parts) is the interview I did Sunday with David Gregory on Meet the Press.
Two excerpts from my new book The Gamble are running in the Washington Post Sunday and Monday. There also are some cool on-line only things — not just another excerpt, but also a great video about how one officer, Capt. Samuel Cook of the 3rd Armored Cavalry, conducted counterinsurgency operations in one part of Iraq last year. (To read more about how Cook talked an insurgent leader into cooperation, read this excerpt from the book, a section called "The Insurgent Who Loved Titanic.")
This video, by contrast, strikes me as an example of how not to do it. The American officer might have an excuse for talking like this, but everything I’ve seen about Iraqis tells me that publicly disparaging them is not the way to go. This motivational speech reminds me of the way Marine sergeants were talking to Iraqi army soldiers in the spring of 2004, just before the soldiers mutinied and refused to go to Fallujah.
And for those who missed it, here (in two parts) is the interview I did Sunday with David Gregory on Meet the Press.
More from Foreign Policy

Xi’s Great Leap Backward
Beijing is running out of recipes for its looming jobs crisis—and reviving Mao-era policies.

Companies Are Fleeing China for Friendlier Shores
“Friendshoring” is the new trend as geopolitics bites.

Why Superpower Crises Are a Good Thing
A new era of tensions will focus minds and break logjams, as Cold War history shows.

The Mediterranean as We Know It Is Vanishing
From Saint-Tropez to Amalfi, the region’s most attractive tourist destinations are also its most vulnerable.