Posted by: McQ on Thursday, September 22, 2005 It seems that the recent Tall Afar offensive in Iraq has been mostly an Iraqi affair, and they're stepping up rather well: The Tall Afar offensive, which began Sept. 2, is the largest urban military operation in Iraq since November's siege of Fallujah. Unlike many previous joint offensives, however, it is the Iraqi army that has the majority of the soldiers on the ground—5,000 of the roughly 8,500 troops involved—that does the most intense fighting and that pays the heaviest price. At least nine Iraqi soldiers have been killed during the operation, compared with one American.That's not to say all is rosy or everything is in order or working. There's still a heck of a lot of work and training to do: The assault on Tall Afar has also highlighted the fact that American forces still provide their Iraqi counterparts with significant logistical support as well as leadership in the form of advisers operating at the small-unit level.What Reilly is alluding to is the development of Non Commissioned Officers, or NCOs. They are the backbone of any army and are the soldiers who make it run, provide the leadership and the continuity necessary to an effective fighting force. Unfortunately they take the longest to develop as well. As we've noted here a few times in the past, NCOs take 3 to 5 years to develop and be effective. We once tried a 'shake-n-bake' NCO course in the US Army, which attempted to make instant NCOs. It doesn't work, because while you can develop leaderhip skills in a relatively short time, you can't develop the experience necessary to go with those skills. That simply is a matter of time and there are no effective shortcuts for that. And, of course, good NCOs also train junior officers (although junior officers don't like to admit that). There's many a general today who remembers with, some fondness, his first platoon sergeant who took him under his wing as a young 2LT and didn't even know what the ropes looked like, much less how to learn them. Nope, there are officers and there are soldiers, but an army is only as good as its NCOs. That's why ours is so outstanding. It's also why we know we still have some years of training ahead of us to make Iraq's army a good one. But to their credit, as demonstrated in Tall Afar, the Iraqis are showing their willingness, with their blood, to fight for their country, despite the huge challenges and problems their country faces. |
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