America's North Shore Journal

Today’s Bloggers’ Roundtable was with Major General Rick Lynch, Commanding General, Multi-National Division Center (MND-C).

“Competent, capable, effective leadership” were the words that General Lynch used to describe the change in Iraqi security forces over the course of his deployment. He mentioned the NCO academies and other leadership training that local ISF has undergone.

With 40,000 Sons of Iraq [SoI] in the field and in operation, the security situation is vastly improved. The vetting process for these civilian auxiliaries begins with the tribal chief, and a thorough check through the biometric database. The SoI are paid about $8 a day, and receive a badge and uniform. There is daily oversight by our forces.

About 20% of the SoI are Shia, and the rest Sunni.

As we progress in the region, adding patrol bases, the locals are encouraged to form councils. Several of these are mixed Shia / Sunni. This is encouraging to the General. “You don’t reconcile with your friends, you reconcile with your enemies”. Our people on the ground work with the local councils to connect them to provincial and national resources and the ministries.

Iranian Influence
During this deployment some 26 caches have been located containing Iranian weapons. AIF have been detained who were trained by Iranians or by Iraqis who were trained by Iranians. There has been no slow down in Iranian attempts to influence the region.

The border itself, for MND-C Wassit Province, is secured by a brigade of Georgian troops in four patrol bases. In addition, Georgians are embedded with the Iraqi border police at the only border crossing.

Our Junior Officers
General Lynch had nothing but praise for the junior officers that are heading up our efforts. His company commanders, captains, have already had one tour as lieutenants or as captains in staff positions. That experience is allowing them to do the reconstruction and reconciliation work that they are doing. They understand that they are “part of the winning team”.

Capacity Building
With the dramatic increase in security, the Iraqi population is looking for jobs. General Lynch is devoting most of his time to that end. He spoke about learning more about fish farming than he ever thought that he would.

He was very specific that he could use ten times as many civilians and civilian resources for capacity building as he has. He expressed a need for more people in the PRT’s and the embedded PRT’s, and more resources for those civilian operations. These would be American experts from State, Justice, Agriculture and USAID.

Transcript PDF file