Got a quick note from SWJ friend Paul McLeary who is wrapping up a month-long embed with the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team in central Iraq where he bounced around to different company-sized patrol bases. He's now writing of his embed experiences at the Columbia Journalism Review ('Dances' With Strongmen) and on his blog - War, the Military, COIN and Stuff.
... No officer or NCO on the ground I spoke with had any illusions about who it is they're dealing with when working with the sheiks or the SOI. "In my mind," Captain Glen Helberg, commanding officer of Charlie Company at Courage told me one afternoon, "the biggest challenge for me is that we're not able to hold together this very loose coalition of IPs (Iraqi police), IAs (Iraqi Army), SOIs, and us. If we're not able to maintain that, then the SOI guys can take their weapons, go home, pull their IEDs out of the garage and go back to what they were doing. We know that there are guys in the SOI who were attacking IPs and coalition forces a year ago. So in my mind the biggest fear is that we can't integrate these guys into the government and into society quick enough."
But they're trying, and finding some success. In my few days at Courage, I accompanied Captain Helberg to several fruitful meetings with SOI leaders, local sheiks, and the area IP commander, all in the name of building trust among the groups...
Paul concentrated on 'boots on the ground' - how Non-Commissioned Officers, Lieutenants and Captains are working with the Sons of Iraq (formerly Concerned Local Citizens), Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army. Good stuff.