General: Hearts and Minds Surge Needed in Iraq
The U.S. general in charge of working with the Iraqi population says the current troop surge is being jeopardized by the lack of an equivalent hearts-and-minds surge among the general population. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz also said that cultural differences between U.S. and Iraqi soldiers were endangering the effort to train Iraqis to take control of security.
"You can't treat everyone as if they're an American soldier," Stultz said. "Everyone's culture is different." The Telegraph notes that British commanders have held this belief for a long time, but it's "remarkably frank" coming from an American general while the troop surge is under scrutiny.
In a May interview, the American Forces Press Service noted the general, who is on a four-year leave of absence as operations manager of Proctor & Gamble, tends to think as much like a businessman as a three-star general. This approach is evident in the Telegraph interview when Stultz talks about the need for U.S. troops to adopt a different approach with their Iraqi cohorts. He relates a story told to him by a major under his command:
"The Army Reserve soldier had a different perspective of how to handle the situation from the active army. He said, 'the first reaction working with the Iraqi soldiers from the active army was the traditional drill sergeant approach: just yell at the guy. ...'"The general said the major had told him that "those of us in the Army Reserve who deal with the civilian population of America would never scream at a customer because I know he would just walk away".
"You've got to build trust with the local people, to say, 'Help us,'" Stultz said. "If we're going to turn around the situation, we need to have the local population identify [insurgents]."
1:15 PM ET | 06-25-2007 | permalink
