US anger at 'cultural insensitivity' claim by British officer

What the hell is he bitching about, there are plenty of top American Generals who have said much the same thing, in not quite the same words.

Scroll down and read 'I'm a door kicker-inner,' one young Marine blurted out - to the dismay of his superiors. In his own words

US anger at 'cultural insensitivity' claim by British officer

12/01/2006 - 10:46:56

The US military is up in arms over an article by a British officer saying American counterparts in Iraq displayed “cultural insensitivity” bordering on racism toward Iraqis and seemed weighed down by bureaucracy.

The 14-page article by Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster was published in the latest issue of the US military magazine, Military Review.

In it, Aylwin-Foster, who served as deputy commander of a British programme to train the Iraqi military, praised American military leaders for showing flexibility in moving troops from combat to reconstruction efforts in Baghdad.

But Aylwin-Foster, who four months in 2004 shared offices with Lt Gen David Petraeus, commander of the Iraqi training programmes, said the Army “seemed weighed down by bureaucracy, a stiflingly hierarchal outlook a predisposition to offensive operations, and a sense of duty that required all issues to be confronted head on”.

He said US officers displayed “cultural insensitivity” that bordered on racism toward Iraqis, and that the decision to disband the Iraqi army alienated segments of the population that could have eased the transition and quashed the uprising.

Petraeus, who now commands Fort Leavenworth, was unavailable for comment last night, an Army spokeswoman said.

But, in a knee-jerk reaction, Col Kevin Benson, the director of the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, was quoted by The Washington Post as calling Aylwin-Foster “an insufferable British snob”.

Benson, who was also director of planning for the 3rd Army in Iraq until 2003, was, however, more conciliatory later.

“I’m sure that most of my colleagues will not react like I did, because I already did that for them,” Benson said. “We try to be thoughtful professionals. Anything that makes us think better is appreciated.”

“I don’t think he knows everything we did,” added Benson, who plans to write a rebuttal article.

Aylwin-Foster’s article went on to say that the US Army was ill-prepared to fight a counter-insurgent battle in Iraq and overestimated the willingness of Iraqis to co-operate with coalition forces. The military’s missteps helped fuel the uprising and instability after the fall of Saddam Hussein, he said.

“Despite political and military leaders’ justifiable claims of achievement against tough odds, others claim, justifiably on the face of it, that the coalition has failed to capitalise on initial success,” he wrote in Military Review, which is published by the Combined Arms Centre at Fort Leavenworth

The article first appeared in 2005 in the Seaford House Papers, a collection of dissertations published by the Royal College of Defence Studies.

Col William Darley, editor of Military Review, said a college official suggested it publish the article because of its insight on army operations. Darley said the review frequently used material from foreign officers to supplement discussions of current army trends and practices.

“This guy’s a highly qualified guy, highly respected. He’s a British officer who does these things and studies these issues,” Darley said. “This article will have global reach by now.”

Benson said even if the British officer’s assessment was accurate based on his time in Iraq, the US Army had revamped the training that officers received prior to deploying to Iraq, including the nuances of working with Iraqi sheikhs and power players.

Benson also takes issue with Aylwin-Foster’s characterisations of tactics used by the army to fight militants and terrorists.

“Are we successful as we want to be? Obviously, no. But are we learning? Yes,” said Benson.

Critics have long assailed the Bush administration over its handling of the Iraq war and the subsequent efforts to restore stability to the country.

Calls for a US troop withdrawal have grown more vocal as the American death toll has steadily climbed above 2,100. Britain’s roughly 8,500 troops in Iraq, meanwhile, are stationed in the largely peaceful southern Shiite part of the country and have endured far fewer fatalities.

Aylwin-Foster, now stationed in Bosnia, anticipated Americans would bristle at his comments.

“There can be few acts more galling than a soldier from one country publicly assessing the performance of those from another,” he wrote.

“However, this is not an arrogant exercise in national comparisons. It is, rather, an attempt to understand and rationalise the apparently paradoxical currents of strength and weakness witnessed close hand over the course of a year.

“Ultimately, the intent is to be helpful to an institution I greatly respect.”

Lt Col Lee Tafanelli, commander the 891st Engineer Battalion of the Kansas Army National Guard in Iraq until December, said while he may not agree with some of Aylwin-Foster’s assertions, he was not bothered that a British officer criticised the Army.

“Hindsight is always clearer,” said Tafanelli, who also serves in the Kansas House. “I don’t have a problem with the article being in Military Review. We are looking at ways to do things better and we definitely want to take those observations in mind.

“You could probably find US officers who would have similar observations.”

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