"Your manuscript (Letters to Bloomington, Ill.) offers a great deal of wisdom to the people of America."-Helen K. Copley, Publisher of the San Diego Union TribuneSome Words of Advice to the Commander-in-Chief shares insight from a former Vietnamese officer whose thorough research has provided him with an in-depth understanding of how the Iraq War became such a quagmire and how the United States can avoid such disasters in the future. Long-time immigrant Le Tat Dieu worked as a writer and journalist in Vietnam and fought with the Americans as a member of the South Vietnamese army. As a result, he has an interesting perspective on the Iraq War. While presenting a simple and clear analysis of the war, he reveals the ignorant and shocking miscalculations by former President George W. Bush and members of his administration. As Le Tat Dieu exposes the horrifically wrong premises that motivated the actions of Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Bremer, and many others, he examines the consequences of invading Iraq and the eventual occupation which no current or future United States President should ignore.
Some Words of Advice to the Commander-in-Chief
What you Don't Know Might Hurt your CountryBy Le Tat DieuiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2009 Le Tat Dieu
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4401-5666-3Chapter One
When the Disaster Started
Dear Commander-in-Chief,
On August 20, 2003, I wrote in the Little Saigon magazine about a decision that undermined the American efforts and good intention in Iraq as follows:
Arriving in Baghdad in May 03, and after only a few days as Iraq's top civil administrator, L Paul Bremer threw his first "country-rebuilding" punch that defied all common sense: He ordered the dissolution of the Iraqi armed forces and several security bodies.
These forces were not temporarily "laid off", but permanently dismissed, because the new King decided that he would create a new police force and a new army for his kingdom.
It was quite obvious that Bremer had little knowledge about the basic thinking and reaction of humankind.
Here are some of the things he either forgot or ignored:
Iraqi soldiers are human being, too, and like Americans and people all over the world they have a need to feed themselves, their spouses, and their children. From out of nowhere comes a guy from abroad who identifies himself as a great liberator yet robs them of the means to earn a living, depriving their families of food, clothing and shelter. Naturally, they will become angry, as would any ordinary people who find themselves in the same situation. Many may even choose violence to protect their survival.
Now an American who is fired unjustly (or believes he is being unjustly fired, treated unfairly, etc.) may become dangerous. Some come back to the workplace with a gun. (In the latest incident on Aug. 27, 03 in Chicago, the fourth in the U.S. this year, 7 lives were lost.) The Iraqis, no matter how nave, timid, uneducated, or terrified by America's power, are people, too. And people who are oppressed and desperate can easily become dangerous.
Ambassador Bremer, in one fell swoop, fired the entire Iraqi armed forces and several security bodies, sacking about a half million in staff. All of them have weapons, have been trained to shoot and kill, and have been through several wars that went on for years. Those half million unemployed, angry, and desperate fighters also have families, relatives, and friends who are now also put in that same desperate situation. This would raise the number of people who would likely want to repel the "invaders" to a million. Wow!
Just like magic, in only the few seconds it took for Bremer to sign orders of dissolution, he instantly created another million formidable enemies for American soldiers to deal with. (I say "another" because the invasion itself had brought them quite a few already.)
The result of Bremer's action came quickly.
Thousands of Iraqi officers and soldiers demonstrated, peacefully at first, to protest Bremer's orders, and to request the liberators respect their right to live by paying them a salary. In a deadly moment, U.S. soldiers shot into the crowd, killing two former Iraqi officers and wounding a dozen, explaining that they were returning fire.
In the funeral for the two victims, the crowd no longer asked for salaries or any other favors from the liberator. They shouted a vow of revenge, and death wishes to America.
I don't know how talented Mr. Bremer was to earn the position of representing America and leading the U.S. liberation team in Iraq. But based on his first rebuilding measure, I am afraid that his judgment, knowledge, and intelligence may not even be enough for the position of a human resources manager of a small company in the U.S.
In the U.S., if a human resources manager starts to rebuild his company by firing everybody at once and then filling up all positions with newly hired people, he would put the company in deep trouble. The former employees would sue the employer to the last penny. The more aggressive ones would picket in front of the company with the potential of it exploding into a violent confrontation. If those fired employees were still living inside the company (were not deported to ... Iran or Jordan) sabotage would occur as frequently as the news that arrives daily on the desk of Mr. Bremer, reporting incidences of U.S. soldiers being ambushed and killed.
Awakened by the deadly conflict caused by his creative rebuilding program, Mr. Bremer tried to initiate damage control. He threw out a new order: The Iraqi armed forces are still being dissolved, no changes. But the army officers will continue to receive their salaries.
To save himself from embarrassment, Bremer ordered the Iraqi officers to sign papers vowing to renounce their loyal to Saddam Hussein and his Baath party. This was to show the whole world, and especially Bremer's superiors, that he had initially denied those men their livelihoods because they had failed to sign some very important, precious papers.
Unfortunately, while taking the above corrective measures, Bremer was only half-awake. His mind was only clear on part of the whole picture. He forgot something: the Iraqi soldiers and their families have the same unfortunate habit as the officers; without food, they also feel hungry and need to eat!
By paying only the officers, Bremer's rescue plan did not reach the soldiers and their families, who were poorer and more desperate. The majority of the angry crowd was still in the hole Bremer had dug. What made this man think that his revised plan, which only solved a tiny part of the problem, could satisfy a half of million angry and humiliated fighters?
The crowd refused to calm down, so Bremer began reconsidering his decision to dissolve the armed forces. But then, he changed his mind. He flatly announced: No changes are necessary. He would rebuild for Iraq, in three years time, an army of 40,000, one-tenth the size of the former forces.
The Iraqi soldiers now had a definite decision about their future: Ambassador Bremer had no way for them to work or make a living in the job of their choice. Even if Mr. Bremer were kind enough to build the new armed forces with all re-hired soldiers, only 40,000 would have jobs - 40,000 out of a half million hopeless and desperate men.
On the surface, and despite their doubts about the "good intentions" of the Liberator, the Iraqi soldiers seemed to accept their new fate, stopped demonstrating and peacefully disappeared.
But are they really gone, those poor professional fighters? I'll address this question later.
One thing I know for sure: They totally disappeared from the reports of Mr. Bremer - from his press releases and conferences. Actually they had never appeared in any of them. Bremer never pointed his finger to those unemployed Iraqis while identifying the terrorists who are now causing all kinds of trouble in Iraq.
To explain the ambushes, attacks and killings of American soldiers happening almost daily, Bremer and the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld changed the identity of the culprits. At first, they blamed Saddam, who had released thousands of criminals before the invasion.
They said that those criminals were now committing all kinds of crimes in Iraq, including ambushing and attacking American soldiers and whoever cooperated or worked with the U.S. Then Baath party loyalists and the remnants of Saddam's Fedayeen were accused. The terrorist group al-Taifa al-Mansouri, stationed far away somewhere in Algeria, also made the list of troublemakers. Then Mr. Bremer's intelligence suddenly pointed to Ansar Al Islam as the real culprit of all the recent killings and bombings. But mainly, the Pentagon went with the theory that the Saddam loyalists, who badly wanted to see him back in power, comprised the main evil force in Iraq, and U.S. soldiers were ordered to urgently find Saddam and his two sons. Our military strategists believed that catching or killing them would render those loyalists hopeless and they would give up fighting.
Nowhere in all of these talks, reports, press releases, and interviews do we find mention of the Iraqi soldiers who wanted to kill Americans because Bremer had insulted them and robbed them of their livelihoods. Bremer totally ignored these extremely angry men, denying them even the distinction of being recognized as the dangerous enemy of the American soldiers.
If Bremer were the luckiest ambassador on earth, and 90% of the half million Iraqi soldiers were cowards who threw away their weapons and quit fighting immediately after he laid them off, he still would have at least tens of thousands of Iraqis who would quietly choose to kill the occupiers. But these have not been mentioned on his terrorist list!
Is it possible that Bremer is just very nave, and that he truly believes the Iraqi soldiers are so impressed by the promising model of democracy that they are willing to endure the hardship of life without food?
I don't think so, because the top administrator of Iraq still has his ears to listen to the victims and critics, and his eyes to see the result of his actions.
On the same "day of dissolution", an Iraqi officer told the press: Before attacking Iraq, the U.S. army rained on Iraqi troops leaflets carrying the American President's message saying that everything will be OK if they do not fight back. Many of us obeyed. Now the American President does not honor his promise and robs us of our livelihood. How will my family live? I won't sit quietly to watch my children die of starvation. I will fight to kick the invaders out of my country!
Although the Iraqi officers received some salary after Bremer's amended order, did this quell the anger and turn the officers into the ambassador's admirers? Here are some of their feelings on that payday as reported by Hamza Hendawi of AP:
They sweated for hours in the searing heat. Many were grim-faced, some resentful, even angry. There was talk of revenge and no hint of gratitude. ... Ghaleb Mattar, a former air defense lieutenant colonel, said delays in paying members of the armed forces have caused families untold hardships. Mattar said it might drive some, including himself, to join the insurgents. "We collected our last salaries in April." he said Thursday, after collecting his money. "If we are to stay that long again without any money, I'll strap myself with explosives and blow myself up in the middle of the Americans." ... "Do you see our humiliation?" said Abu el-Hakim, a colonel in Saddam Hussein's defeated army, as he stood in a long line of fellow officers to collect a one-time $100 payment from U.S. coalition authorities. "These Americans only deserve our rocket-propelled grenades, nothing else," he said, referring to the weapon of choice of Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. troops ...
Those were the true feelings of some of the lucky ones who were eligible to receive some money!
Mr. Bremer might dismiss the Iraqi soldiers' and officers' observations, arguing that they were already resistant to any plans from the U.S. But there are people whose wisdom, experience, and leadership skills are harder to ignore, like former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and they have determined that Bremer's action was a big mistake.
During a visit to New York, Barak told the press that the Iraqi police would do a very good job in securing civil society (implying that Bremer's decision to replace them with U.S. soldiers and new recruits was not a good idea.)
President Mubarak criticized Bremer more directly, saying that the decision to dissolve the Iraqi army and other state jobs was a mistake, which would result in higher unemployment and fuel crime. On July 26, 03, at a meeting with students in Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Mubarak remarked: "[The Iraqi] earns no money. How is he going to live? How is he going to eat? How is he going to dress his children? ... Naturally, he's going to work as a criminal, he'll join any gang. He'll become desperate." (Reuters.)
I believe the Egyptian President was trying to be diplomatic and avoided mentioning the next step, which if revealed, would expose the weakness in the leadership of the U.S. administration and damage the reputation of his ally.
The omitted fact is this: Those unemployed professional fighters would not only become criminals, thieves and robbers ... they would also play a major role in ambushing, attacking and killing American soldiers.
Some desperate soldiers might choose robbery as convenient way to make money in an emergency, exactly as the Egyptian president predicted. But the majority, I believe, would wish to retain their dignity, rather than becoming thugs to make a living.
The Iraqi armed forces, well organized, experienced, and comprising almost a half million, does not have to rob and steal to earn money. Just find a noble cause to fight for and everybody, from the privates to the generals, can become heroes. The Iraqi people will offer them money, supplies, material and spiritual assistance. After all there are patriots among the Iraqi people, too.
Talking about noble causes, our president has found a good one for the U.S. Army. By attacking and invading Iraq, our main goal was to get rid of Saddam and eliminate a major threat to America. The cause sounds pure national self interest. But by labeling our soldiers "Liberators" at the last minute, all at once, he made them heroes deserving the admiration of the whole world.
Some Iraqi army leaders might be as smart as Mr. Bush, I'm afraid. They would call themselves the real liberators as they are fighting to liberate the Iraqis from foreign occupiers. Now we know we are the good guys and our president is sincere, but the Iraqis don't necessary think so. Mr. Bremer's decision has convinced millions of Iraqis that the disbanded Iraqi army is the true liberator and the noble cause now belongs to their side.
Bremer told the press that, according to a poll, only 15% of the Iraqi people hate America. The remaining 85% like Americans very much and believe that they will bring prosperity, happiness and democracy to Iraq. If this is true, and all the wealthy Iraqis are on the same side as the 85% who love America and detest the terrorists, would the Iraqi army then be in trouble and go hungry again?
I don't think so. Besides a noble cause, they have another very effective tool to make quick money in a lawless society: violence.
They can compel with force the non-voluntary support of others. In daytime they can cover their faces and set up checkpoints to collect highway fees. At night, they can visit some wealthy families and demand contributions to their cause. Who would dare resist them?
The terrorist organizations in the Middle East, inspired and excited by the chance to kill Americans, would happily send them money, volunteers and weapons. This has caused Mr. Bremer to claim to the media that those foreign militants, the hundreds of Ansar al-Islam members who have entered Iraq to perform terrorist acts, are the real culprits.
He doesn't know (or doesn't want to know) that those militants are only a small group of terrorists who have come to reinforce the bigger one that already exists inside Iraq, the one numbering in the hundreds thousands that Bremer unwittingly created.
So the unemployed Iraqi Army has not disappeared as he had hoped. It has become a mighty power in the dark that rules an important part of Iraq.
Bremer has good reason to make these dangerous and angry Iraqi men invisible to the public. He needs to protect his new throne and the handsome paychecks of the top Occupier.
But by doing so, he has denied the President, the Vice President, the National security Advisor, and the Secretary of Defense, the chance to identify and eliminate the real problem, and begin corrective measures.
The administration already made a grave mistake by choosing a mediocre man for a complex and difficult job. The lives of the American soldiers and the fate of the Iraqi people are in the hands of this clumsy man, whose self interest prevents the administration from seeing the real problems and causes. This guarantees that only more mistakes will be made. The American soldiers and the Iraqi people will continue to pay for these mistakes with their lives.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Some Words of Advice to the Commander-in-Chiefby Le Tat Dieu Copyright © 2009 by Le Tat Dieu. Excerpted by permission.
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