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What They Said Couldn’t Be Done
Posted by: John Matel
The accomplishment of the United States, Coalition Forces and Iraqis is astonishing, especially when you consider the near-death experiences of 2006. The Middle East is more secure without the murderous Saddam Hussein in power, and it is immensely better off than it would have been had we failed in 2006. I believe this will be seen by future historians as a paradigm shifting event. For awhile many people feared that the initiative had passed to the bad guys or at least to the forces of chaos. The apparent disintegration of our position…
Persistence and Luck Pay Off in Iraq
Posted by: John Matel
About the Author: John Matel serves as Team Leader of the Al Asad Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq.
You cannot achieve success if you do not stick around long enough to achieve it. Difficult and unexpected circumstances in Iraq provided many excuses to give up. Leading experts and pundits told it straight-out that the United States was defeated. They were wrong, but they could have been right if we had acted on their advice. In other words, a lack of resolve on our part would have made their…
Iraq: PRTs, ePRTs and the Holistic Approach
Posted by: John Matel
About the Author: John Matel serves as Team Leader of the Al Asad Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq.
You cannot win a modern war by military means alone. COIN Manual says that some of the best weapons do not shoot. By the way, the COIN Manual is itself a great example of the flexible strategy it advocates. It is a living document, almost a wiki. As new experience is analyzed…
Hidden Prosperity and the Banana Index in Iraq
Posted by: John Matel
John A Matel serves as an ePRT Leader in Western Anbar, Iraq embedded with the U.S. Regimental Combat Team 5th Marines.
General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker have given their assessment of the situation in Iraq. They see the big picture and I will not try to add or detract from anything they have said. I am grappling with my own challenge of measurement. How can I tell if my team and I are doing a good job? I am doing my best to deploy all my skill and experience on how to assess and measure. I am delving…
Iraq: Perceptions Out of Date
Posted by: John Matel
John Matel serves as Team Leader of the Al Asad Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq.
Public perceptions of Iraq are not wrong; they are just out of date. Media coverage of Iraq has dropped in almost perfect correlation with progress made toward peace and stability. As a result, the picture persists from pre-surge 2006 but it is not 2006 anymore. It is post-surge in Anbar Province where a significantly more secure Iraq exists rebuilding, learning, governing, producing and starting to make huge…
Making the Most of “the Surge” in Iraq
Posted by: John Matel
John Matel serves as Team Leader of the Al Asad Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq.
Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) declared Ramadi the capital of their caliphate in Iraq. That was only about eighteen months ago. Today Ramadi is the capital of resurgent Al Anbar, with thriving markets, internet cafes and restaurants. Maj. General Gaskin, who commands CF in Al Anbar, has said that the province is ready to be handed back to the Iraqis in March. He added that when he arrived less than a year ago, he never…
Groundhog Day
Posted by: John Matel
John Matel serves as Team Leader of the Al Asad Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq.
Not long after I arrived in Iraq, I wrote a post on my personal blog called, "Get a Life." I was trying to find something to do that was not work related. Nobody can work flat out forever. But there was just no place to go or anything else to do but work. We live in small trailers w/o bathrooms. The office is…
A Letter From Iraq to My Overwrought Colleagues
Posted by: John Matel
In his first posting, John writes an open letter to his Foreign Service Officer colleagues about the controversial issue of directed assignments in Iraq. The issue raises an interesting question, "Should diplomats and other non-military personnel be forced to work in an active war zone"?
John Matel is a career Foreign Service Officer (FSO) who is currently serving as the team leader of the Provincial Reconstruction Team embedded in Al Asad, Al Anbar Province.
I just finished reading a