Training Iraqi army/police (a repeat)

9,000 'Awakening' members ready for Iraq military training: US
26 Jan 2008
AFP
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Some 9,000 members of anti-Qaeda "Awakening" fronts in Iraq have been screened and lined up for training as regular police or soldiers, the US military said on Sunday.

My suspicion is that U.S.-designed training for Iraq military & police focuses exclusively on military/police technical skills. (I don't know this, but it seems a plausible assumption.)

If we are depending on Iraq's military & police to provide the core of the new Iraqi nation, I'd include another component in the training: national heritage.

As I've suggested previously, I believe all military/police training ought include a significant curriculum on Iraq's heritage, to help develop of sense of national pride - convince the army & the police that the nation they are defending is rich in heritage and is worth defending.

As that previous post noted, as a U.S. Army basic trainee (Ft. Knox, KY; A-15-4), I received a couple of days of instruction on the history of the U.S. Army. I learned who von Steuben was, and what he did to help make a professional army of Washington's rag-tag Continental troops. These lessons were sufficiently powerful that I remember them today - more than 30 years later.

"Mesopotamia" - the land between the rivers - is the "cradle of civilization". The home of Hammurabi the law-giver. The Epic of Gilgamesh includes the original Flood Story. The Biblical Babylonians and Assyrians who took Israel into the "Babylonian Captivity" were the world powers of the day.

[An etymological aside: "Meso" is not too hard a Greek prefix to figure out: "in the middle". "Potamia" has only one other common occurence in English, in "hippopotamus" - "river horse". An uncommon but legitimate English word for an equestrian racetrack: "hippodrome"; the ancestral horse from the fossil record: "eohippus" ("Eos" = dawn, hence, "dawn horse"). "Hippopotamus" = "hippo" - horse, + "potamus" - river. Thence we have, "Mesopotamia" - "between the rivers". Here endeth the etymology lesson.]

Charlemagne - the great 8th-century Christian emperor, corresponded with Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid Caliph ruling in Baghdad, who represented a far more advanced culture than his European correspondent.

It was under Hārūn ar-Rashīd that Baghdad flourished into the most splendid city of its period. Tribute was paid by many rulers to the caliph, and these funds were used on architecture, the arts and a luxurious life at court.
[Wikipedia entry, Harun al-Rashid]

This is worth including in Iraq's military & police curriculum!

The Kurd, Saladin, hailing from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin, and recovered Jersualem from the Franks. Richard the Lion-Heart faced him in battle.

Give Iraqi recruits a reason to take pride in their country!

My suggestion? Include a full week of history in the Army & Police basic curriculum. Emphasize that Iraq is the "cradle of civilization"; that Hammurabi with his palace in Babylon gave the world the first law code; that art, literature, architure derive from Iraq. Mention the Epic of Gilgamesh with its remarkable Flood story. Include the history of Baghdad's greatness - of Harun al-Rashid & the Arabian Nights. Emphasize the grandeur of Harun's court at the time of his correspondence with the European barbarian Charlemagne. Remind them that one of their Kurdish countrymen - Saladin - defeated Richard the Lion-Heart! Theirs is a country worth preserving, worth fighting for, worth dying for.

If the Army & Police are our best bets for establishing a post-Saddam national Iraqi identity, the training that we provide ought to nurture that identity!