I’ve been struggling with the following puzzle since the seriousness of the security problem emerged - why are we reacting instead of preempting? Why do we have to wait for the bad guys to bomb or shoot at us? Instead, why don’t we track down and vett every Iraqi who is a probable bad guy? A related puzzle - why isn’t every Iraqi citizen carrying a reliable, machine-readable ID Card?
The Iraqis have documentation on most of the likely players - but I’ve never seen any indication these resources are being exploited. If I were King I would definitely want to evaluate methods that (a) focus arrests and surveilance on the most likely terrorists, and (b) simplify the rapid and reliable identification of any persons encountered in any situation by security (checkpoints, sweeps, etc.).
Given the Saddam regime’s compulsive record keeping, isn’t there a directory/database of all senior Baathist, Fedayeen, military personnel, etc? If those records do exist, I don’t understand why some variation of the following is not worth consideration:
1) drive a national vetting program from the master directory, enlisting the entire population to help locate the high-risk men (e.g., via regular TV and print ads looking for these men with photos and descriptions)?
2) retain for interrogation the suspicious characters?
3) for those who cannot pass the vetting with full confidence, require them to wear a personal tracker (as used for out-prisoner cases)? Cut the tracker off only once they can be fully vetted.
4) why not a national ID card scheme? I.e., who are these guys we just stopped at a checkpoint? Are they vetted good guys?
5) exploit what I call the "circle of trust". Consider the old Iraqi army and security apparatus as an example. I’m confident that by now we have identified a number of the ex-officer class that are true Iraqi patriots, reliable and trusted men. Have we invested appropriately serious effort to work with these men to develop the "circle of trust" cadre? From which we could draw candidates for leadership in all areas (security forces, anti-corruption forces, …).
I have similar questions with regard to the database of those listed in the massive pre-war prisoner release. I would also examine the wisdom of expanding the screen to include any released criminals in the risky age group. And what about the lists of pre-war welfare cases?
You’ve got some good ideas, let me get you up to date on what we are doing over there.
1) The vetting program is a monster logistic wise simply because their records are not as good as you might think. The Iraqi men can have more than one valid name like Mustafa Mubarrak or Abu (insert oldest son’s name here) that are interchangeable. We do have TV ads, flyers, posters, and match books with pictures of the wanted on them.
2) We already do that and the our press hates it.
3) I wish we could but we can’t hardly track our own people here and the resources aren’t available in Iraq currently.
4) I would have loved an ID card but even the ID that the normal person over there had might have a 20 year old picture attached to it. They really are a few years behind us as far as most things go.
5) We do use former officers in current leadership positions and I have had the honor of working with a couple of them. They are really good guys that want to take care of their country.
Good posts, keep up the good work!
American Soldier,
Many thanks for your comments. What I infer from the realities you describe is that there are not enough resources available to execute such a vetting program.
E.g., the records aren’t good, are ambiguous, etc - so it takes a lot of manpower to use them preemptively. (ala the shortage of Arab speakers, translators, etc.)
Or simply that leadership has prioritized as best they can how to get the most results from the available manpower.
Regarding ID cards, ankle-trackers, and the like - I was wondering where technology $ could be applied to reduce casualities. Effective ID card technology is available - if it were judged worth the money. What money and personnel resources would be required to ID-card the Iraqi population I have no clue.
When it comes to saving lives of our soldiers I would vote for spending a lot more. I understood this to be the philosophy behind, e.g., expensive standoff weapons.
And thanks for your service (and for the American Soldier site).