American Citizen Soldier: Humming the Haifa Street Blues

He ponders the question "what does it really mean to win in Iraq?". He discusses his frustration with the question because the people that tend to answer it hardly know what they're talking about. He states that the real question lies in whether or not the Iraqi security forces can stand on their own - or in other words whether there has been any progress made while the troops have been there. The overwhelming answer to this is not really. Despite this he does say that "its encouraging to see them finally transition to uparmored Humvees from under armoured Toyotas". He speaks about the concept of pride and that it is important to Iraq to change their former impression because "honor" is very important in Iraqi culture. Firing older generations from certain positions hasn't necessarily sat well with the culture was seen as problematic due to the fact that it involved the concept of honor, however keeping them would have made things worse. He speaks of the Iraqi police force where "many have no concept whatsoever of their duty to society as officers of the law". Many of the people appointed to these jobs seem incompetent. Some of the Iraqi police force have been the criminals as opposed to the ones catching the criminals. They have not been held accountable for their actions in Iraq as well as their lack of action. He says the problem overall lies in the fact that they are more fixated on quantity as opposed to quality. He ends with the fact that as a result of these issues, while being in Iraq "were not only getting what we pay for, were getting what we've been failing to pay for as well". http://www.bucksargent.net/2007/01/humming-haifa-street-blues.html