God willing: my wild ride with the new Iraqi Army by Eric Navarro
Here's a Marine officer who becomes an advisor to an Iraqi battalion. If you ever want to hear a nightmare about leading troops to battle, this might be it. The below quote from upthread came back to me as I went looking through here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Webstral
... however, the Army leadership is conditioned to deal with Joe. Joe is a good guy, but at the same time he generally sucks a**. He requires close supervision for virtually every task. ... His responsibilities mean little to him beyond the fact that he will suffer if he is caught not executing them. The spirit of the law is only to be observed when it comes to his privileges; otherwise, a stricter observance of the letter of the law than a tort lawyer could argue is the watchword. "I was told I couldn't go to the PX. No one said anything about the commissary or the bowling alley."
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Navarro came to realize that each and every order had to be given all the time, every time, starting with instructions to use the latrines and/or port-a-potties. Fire discipline was non-existent, and many more things that seemed too wild to believe.