Externe

Victor Davis Hanson, just back from Iraq.

02-24hanson.mp3

HH: Now back on the Hugh Hewitt Show with Victor Davis Hanson, military historian extraordinaire, author most recently of A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War, and just back from Iraq. Victor Davis Hanson, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show.

VDH: Glad to be here, Hugh.

HH: Tell us, give us an overview. How long were you in Iraq, and where did you visit in the country?

VDH: Well, with all the travel time, it was about a week, and we went to obviously the Green Zone, Camp Victory, but also a long ride by Blackhawk to Kirkuk, and we went to the big air force base at Balad. And then we went and looked at the newly formed Iraqi 10th mechanized division at Taji, as well as talked to General Casey, General Chiarelli, General Dempsey, General Beaugard (?), and most of the...and also ambassador's assistant of Mr. Satr for...

HH: Now I've posted a link at Hughhewitt.com of your summary of your visit over at Nationalreview.com. It begins, "The insurgency in Iraq has no military capability either to drive the U.S. military from Iraq, or to stop the American training of Iraqi police and security forces, or for that matter, to derail the formation of a new government." In other words, Victor Davis Hanson, it's an insurgency doomed to fail.

VDH: It is. It could succeed if for some reason, we panicked and abandoned this newly-formed government, or ceased our training of the Iraqi security forces. But if we're willing to have patience, and we're willing to take losses, because every time we go out, there's a possibility that an I.E.D. can kill an American, and that's what they're counting on. I'm pretty sure that by the end of the year, we'll have about 100,000 troops, 70-100,000, and there will be a half a million of security police, state police, as well as ten regular Iraqi divisions. And I think that most of the security will be handled by the Iraqis.

HH: What I found very encouraging in your assessment, and I don't think you're in a hurry to be fooled by anyone, is that the new Iraqi army will be, if not the most competent among the Arab states, close to be. Is that a correct summary?

VDH: Oh, there's no doubt about it. It's got the best of both worlds, because we all hear that we disbanded...we didn't disband it, it just melted. And what's happened is senior generals on their own have come back and asked American commanders to form divisions. So there's 70 or 80 officers in each division that have had thirty years of fighting the Iranians, fighting us, going into Kuwait. They know battle experiences, but they're embedded with American officers who are training them how to operate under a consentual government. And then they have very good equipment, they're getting armored Humvees, they have body armor, they're very professionally trained. I went out on the range and shot AK-47's with them. They have enormous fire disclipline. They're mirror imaging how the United States would train a conventional army, and they're gaining the respect of the people.

HH: Are they going to have the same ethic so deeply embedded in the American military that they stay out of politics? That is the toughest thing to train in the Middle East, Victor Davis Hanson. Do you think they have it?

VDH: I hope so, and I think that that's been the prime directive of the American military. They're very conscious that they do not want another Saddam to rise out of the ranks. But I must say, Hugh, there's an irony there, that just six months ago, the criticism of the Iraqi army was that it was either non-existent or there was only two brigades that were functional, or they were poorly armed with American hand-me-downs. And suddenly, the dynamic of that argument has shifted to a worry that they're getting too big, they're very well armed, they're becoming professional, they might threaten consentual government. So I think we've got to give them some slack. You can't go from one extreme of the argument to the other in just six months.

HH: Victor Davis Hanson, how is the morale among American troops that you visited?

VDH: Oh, it's superb. It's absolutely superb. I would like to rest another thing that I saw, another myth that the American army is ruined, and it has to be filled by Guardsmen and Reserves. I flew on a C-130 a couple of times with Reserve officers, and we've got to remember, when we say Reserve, we're talking about people with far more experience, sometimes, than regular Army people. These were ex-United pilots, and some of them were on duty with United, and were serving their Guard obligations. And when you talk to 18, 19, and 20 year olds, they seem to look toward the Guardsmen and the Reserves who are in their 20's and 30's, and operate businesses. They're doctors, they're electricians, they're plumbers. So they bring a wealth of experience to the regular Army, and I found that the argument was again turned on its head, that we think that Guardsmen and Reserves are sort of rear echelon-like troops. And in fact, they are at the vanguard of rebuilding Iraqi's society.