Share This Page:

  

Doing business in Basra

Forums Announcements, News & Media Articles along with current home and international affairs.
Post Reply
SO19
Member
Member
Posts: 3105
Joined: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 10:27 am
Location: Cumbria
Contact:

Doing business in Basra

Post by SO19 »

Doing business in Basra
16 Aug 06

The senior British soldier in Basra says progress is slowed by complex tribal loyalties, but hostility is not universal and commerce can help.

Image
Sitting down together: Maintaining friendly contact with community leaders at a human level is important. [Picture: Harland Quarrington]

Image
Commander of 20th Armoured Brigade, Brigadier James Everard [Picture: Harland Quarrington]

Image
British soldiers on patrol interact with the Iraqi locals. [Picture: Harland Quarrington]

Image
British soldiers in discussion with an Iraqi community leader. [Picture: Harland Quarrington]

As Commander of 20th Armoured Brigade, Brigadier James Everard can be seen as the most powerful tribal leader in southern Iraq. In a country where weapons win more arguments than reasonable debate, the troops under his control gain him great respect. But he prefers to use diplomacy, dialogue and training to achieve lasting success.

In an office at Basra Air Station, among maps, books on guerrilla warfare and an Aladdin’s lamp (he says he has resisted the temptation to bring out the genie), the Brigadier explained the challenge of bringing disparate groups together for the greater good of the community.

"You have to remember that we’re very different from Baghdad,” he says. "There’s no-one here who wants to overturn the government. They just want a bigger slice of political power and the trappings that go with it."

That does not mean the security situation is resolved. People are murdered on the streets of Basra in the month prior to Focus's visit, the victims of tribal feuds, religious sectarianism, terrorism, or simple criminal activity. And there's no doubt things have got more difficult recently.

He admits that his troops are now far more cautious when moving around the area. But the Brigadier also says there is less need for British soldiers to be on the streets, because Iraq's own police and military are doing much more of the work.

So what is it like walking around Basra city these days?

"It's a bit like going to a football match in England wearing the wrong shirt. If you catch the mood right, people don't see anything wrong with you. If you catch the mood wrong, you could be in trouble very quickly."

Regardless of who is doing the policing in South-East Iraq, a solution to the power struggles and violence will demand far more than shows of force.

"The solution is a political one," says Everard. "What you need is a government in Iraq which is going to give a lead of clear determination, strength and moral validity. And we need them to establish boundaries. There are people down here who simply don't see themselves as beholden to the rule of law."

The Iraqi police force – an essential element in restoring civil order – is generally viewed as less reliable than the Iraqi army, and the multi-national force has worked hard to train its leadership. But Everard says that success creates its own difficulties.

"You find someone who's very good, and you invest in him heavily, but he's recognised as very good, and then taken elsewhere. You can imagine the frustration for a unit which spent six months building up a cohesive police station around the chief of police and his key deputy who are on-side, progressive and helpful.

"Then you go in one day to find they've both been promoted and taken to Baghdad. Instead there are two blokes you’ve never met, who haven't benefited from any of the training you’ve given over the last four months. You have to go back to the start."

If you are engaged in a hearts-and-minds mission, you need to understand how the minds of the local population actually work, and find solutions that they are happy with rather than imposing off-the-shelf western solutions. That means getting to grips with the complex loyalties of Arab society:

"Links are everything," says the brigadier. "If you're a politician your loyalty will be to your political party. But you'll also be loyal to your tribe, and, through marriages, have secondary loyalties to other tribes.

"We're always slightly surprised when people are reluctant to make what we would deem a quick or logical decision, and it’s often because, although they know what the decision is going to achieve, they have to work out what the impact is going to be in terms of tribe, politics and wealth."

The brigadier compares Iraq to his experience in the Balkans in the '90s, where the prevailing warlord culture meant any compromise was seen as weakness.

"People haven't been exposed to the way democracy is meant to work. It’s a question of dialogue, consensus, compromise, and the powerful respecting the rights of the minority. But there are an awful lot of people who really don’t get it at all."

While winning the battle for minds is essential, the methods used are not ideological – they are very practical bread-and-butter ones, he says.

"Through the Provincial Reconstruction Teams and other structures we’re trying to tempt inward investment and get employment-generating commerce off the ground. We recognise that many of the people who are picking up guns are young, unemployed and bored, and therefore ripe for recruitment into some of these organisations."

There has been concrete progress in some areas. Everard sees the handing back of Muthanna Province to Iraqi control as highly significant, and predicts that Dhi Qar and Maysan provinces could be handed back by the New Year. That, he says, raises the question of what to do with the resources freed up by the process.

"The big decision people will have to make in the future is whether to take your dividend elsewhere, or to reinvest it. The temptation will be to put those troops elsewhere. But actually, if you're going to finish this off, you ought to reinvest them here."

Every commander has to face the possibility of losses, and Iraq has provided a steady stream of bad news for families and comrades.

"It's very difficult when you take a casualty in the small family that is a platoon or a company. You always see the same pattern. You get that twelve or twenty-four hour period of anger and unhappiness. You get through the repatriation, and then people move on. I think that's because they think they're doing a good job – and they are.

"We were having a debate the other day after the death of one of my soldiers, at the end of what had been a very complicated and well-executed operation. We wanted our press statement to say that during a very successful operation, one of our soldiers had died. But there was a reluctance to use the word 'successful', because a soldier was killed.

"The boys travelling back in the Warrior with the corpse of one of their comrades are not thinking, 'That's a disaster', but thinking, 'We did bloody well, and poor old X bought it'. That’s what they want to see in the media."

James Everard is under no illusions about the difference he can make during his brief time in charge.

"It's a long-term game," he says. "You come down here wanting to change the world. But you realise that your seven months is part of a much larger game plan. If you can make your slice of the Iraqi Army or the Border Enforcement Agency or the Police better and stronger, that's job done. That's achievement."

This article, by Roy Bacon, first appeared in the August 2006 issue of Focus, the newspaper for people in defence.
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Defen ... nBasra.htm
Last edited by SO19 on Sat 19 Aug, 2006 6:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[i]‘We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat’ - Queen Victoria, 1899[/i]
SO19
Member
Member
Posts: 3105
Joined: Sun 02 Oct, 2005 10:27 am
Location: Cumbria
Contact:

Post by SO19 »

Damn, these feasts make me hungry. :D
[i]‘We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat’ - Queen Victoria, 1899[/i]
Artist
Guest
Guest

Post by Artist »

Sheeps eyeballs! :o :o :o :o

Sod that!

I would rather die the death of a thousand McDonalds. Yes it can kill you........over time.

When I was in the Oman I was invited to this blokes house for big eats (on a regular basis). I can only say that I always enjoyed myself. At no time did I glop booze (I honoured their religion as I was their guest). The conversations were enough for me. Sometimes conversations about the future of the Middle East would be started. And truth be told they had it right.

Other times it would involve how we lived and enjoyed ourselves in the West. At no time did they ever "TUT TUT" when I regailed them of tales of me getting ratarsed down the Strasse, Guz. As in pulling birds, getting into fights and suchlike.

To a man and woman they were the most polite friendly people you could ever wish to meet. And that is just what they are, people. Just like any other people, intelligent, articulate and decent in the vast majority of cases. The Muslims God is the same God as ours, Jesus is a Prophet to the Muslims. It's just a crying shame that these days we and the Muslim world tend to look at each other as THEM AND US. Don't you just love the Human race hey?.

If any Fundimentalist Muslims,Christians, or whatever don't like what I've said then tough shit! I'm a Human Being who tries very hard not to be a racist, a bigot or anything that creates trouble between Humanity. A total Pipedream I know but it's nice to dream sometimes is it not?

Artist
Tam527
Member
Member
Posts: 183
Joined: Fri 26 May, 2006 6:34 pm
Location: Motherwell

Post by Tam527 »

'ere mate. Any chance you could come to our cookhouse and teach our effin' slops how to cook. :o
'Oi', 'You'!... 'Yes You'! Straighten that fu??ing arm or I'll rip it off and beat you round the head with the soggy end!!
harry hackedoff
Member
Member
Posts: 14415
Joined: Tue 19 Feb, 2002 12:00 am

Post by harry hackedoff »

Artist you got that right, Oppo. :wink:
People are people wherever you go, except Evertonians and those bastards who buy James Blunt, obviously :P
[url=http://www.militaryforums.co.uk/forums/groupcp.php?g=397][img]http://www.militaryforums.co.uk/forums/images/usergroups/listener.gif[/img][/url]
exgreenjacket
Member
Member
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat 08 Jul, 2006 4:47 pm
Location: Liverpool

Post by exgreenjacket »

harry hackedoff wrote:Artist you got that right, Oppo. :wink:
People are people wherever you go, except Evertonians and those bastards who buy James Blunt, obviously :P
whats wrong with james blunt?
harry hackedoff
Member
Member
Posts: 14415
Joined: Tue 19 Feb, 2002 12:00 am

Post by harry hackedoff »

If you have to ask, you`re probably an Evertonian :roll:
[url=http://www.militaryforums.co.uk/forums/groupcp.php?g=397][img]http://www.militaryforums.co.uk/forums/images/usergroups/listener.gif[/img][/url]
harry hackedoff
Member
Member
Posts: 14415
Joined: Tue 19 Feb, 2002 12:00 am

Post by harry hackedoff »

Paul, for a really informed assesment of James "Rat Boy" Blunt you really can`t miss this 8) Sarastro is a bleedin genius :P

viewtopic.php?t=12404&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Enjoy yerself lar! 8) :P
[url=http://www.militaryforums.co.uk/forums/groupcp.php?g=397][img]http://www.militaryforums.co.uk/forums/images/usergroups/listener.gif[/img][/url]
exgreenjacket
Member
Member
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat 08 Jul, 2006 4:47 pm
Location: Liverpool

Post by exgreenjacket »

hes alright i reckon.

apart from being an ex orifacer like.
Post Reply