muy_thaiguy wrote:Just keep drinking your tea and eating your crumpets, and no one will get hurt...
Drinking tea is a good idea (Dr. Tea says so; it must be true) but I don't know of a good source of crumpets in the United States; I'll have to take your word on that.
Getting back to the subject at hand. My friend's son is in Iraq currently training the Iraqi forces. You won't hear about anything that he sees on a daily basis; most of the reporters are hiding in the relatively safe "green zone." From what he tells his father the biggest problem is that the Iraqi officer corps was created based on who knew whom and not on actual leadership ability. They, for the most part, have never lead even a small squad but are not in charge of hundreds of men. They do have an ego which is the size of their undeserved ranks so the only way they can learn anything is to make mistakes and then realize that they have to ask for help as they don't take instruction easily. The lower ranks, however, are making good progress.