Saturday, January 14, 2006
In Iraq, Wrongs made a Right
The linked article for this post is a New York Times Op-Ed piece written by Paul Bremer.
Paul Bremer was the senior civilian US official in Iraq when I arrived there. He was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority. This was the group that ran Iraq until the provisional government took over.
The article is a brief overview of his book. In the article, he owns up to his mistakes, and takes, in my opinion, well justified credit for what he did right.
I met Mr. Bremer, in passing, a couple of times during my stay in Iraq. He seemed like a nice guy, very concerned about doing the right thing; whether that was dealing with local Iraqi officials, representatives of Iraqi Non-Governmental Organizations (charities, and the like), or dealing with soldiers.
After seeing first-hand what he was trying to do, meeting him in person, and reading this article, the only thing I can fault him on is ...
Well, while he was the head of the CPA, he insisted on wearing the old Schwarzkopf desert combat boots all of the time. I have to tell you that seeing a man in a three-peice, blue pinstripe, suit with those boots, especially given the fact that the pants were a bit too short for boots, was a little strange.
On a side note, the reason I refer to the original desert combat boots that the Army issued as "Schwarzkopf" boots is that oral history has it that at the start of Desert Shield/Storm the Army had no desert combat boot, and it found that it's other issue boots weren't up to soldier's needs. The Army developed new boots, and one of the people that volunteered to test the boots to see if they met the needs of his troops was GEN Schwarzkopf. The legend has it that the General felt that if they weren't good enough for him, then they certainly weren't good enough for his troops.
I don't know how true that is. But, I do know that, as a young lieutenant, he was a part of the relief force that rescued LTG Hal Moore in Ia Drang Valley (the story of the movie, "We Were Soldiers"). His picture, leading troops in the field, is part of the book.
Paul Bremer was the senior civilian US official in Iraq when I arrived there. He was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority. This was the group that ran Iraq until the provisional government took over.
The article is a brief overview of his book. In the article, he owns up to his mistakes, and takes, in my opinion, well justified credit for what he did right.
I met Mr. Bremer, in passing, a couple of times during my stay in Iraq. He seemed like a nice guy, very concerned about doing the right thing; whether that was dealing with local Iraqi officials, representatives of Iraqi Non-Governmental Organizations (charities, and the like), or dealing with soldiers.
After seeing first-hand what he was trying to do, meeting him in person, and reading this article, the only thing I can fault him on is ...
Well, while he was the head of the CPA, he insisted on wearing the old Schwarzkopf desert combat boots all of the time. I have to tell you that seeing a man in a three-peice, blue pinstripe, suit with those boots, especially given the fact that the pants were a bit too short for boots, was a little strange.
On a side note, the reason I refer to the original desert combat boots that the Army issued as "Schwarzkopf" boots is that oral history has it that at the start of Desert Shield/Storm the Army had no desert combat boot, and it found that it's other issue boots weren't up to soldier's needs. The Army developed new boots, and one of the people that volunteered to test the boots to see if they met the needs of his troops was GEN Schwarzkopf. The legend has it that the General felt that if they weren't good enough for him, then they certainly weren't good enough for his troops.
I don't know how true that is. But, I do know that, as a young lieutenant, he was a part of the relief force that rescued LTG Hal Moore in Ia Drang Valley (the story of the movie, "We Were Soldiers"). His picture, leading troops in the field, is part of the book.
