Things to think about

It is painful to read about the performances of some of the National Police over this past week. I didn't work directly with either of the brigades specifically mentioned, but it hurts regardless. And I'm sure it is troubling to the leaders who aren't corrupt- as they try to clean house, they see their work torn asunder by folks with questionable (or clearly JAM) loyalties.

Iraqi, Al-Sadr Showdown A Test Of Loyalties
Hundreds of sympathetic security forces defied orders to fight Shiite militiamen
By Charles Levinson, USA Today
USA Today
April 2, 2008
Pg. 6

An interesting perspective from an NPR reporter about last week's events and their implications.

LTC Nagl with another good letter in the NY Times. Discussing this with a special forces LTC, he has a beef with the assertion that we don't have the doctrine for these advisory teams- he believes it has existed for years within the special forces community and within other parts of the military- it is just not in the mainstream "big army." The title of the article reminded me of Bob on the Fob's "Good idea fairy."

And a good commentary from yesterday about the financial piece of the whole military effort.