For Guidance in Iraq, Marines Rediscover A 1940s Manual

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Thu Apr 8 20:33:15 PDT 2004


<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB108137571973077200,00.html>

The Wall Street Journal

      April 8, 2004

 PAGE ONE



For Guidance in Iraq,
 Marines Rediscover
 A 1940s Manual
Small-War Secrets Include:
 Tips on Nation-Building,
 The Care of Pack Mules

By GREG JAFFE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
April 8, 2004; Page A1


When Maj. Matthew Chisholm shipped out to Iraq in February, he stuffed his
dogeared copy of the "Marine Corps Small Wars Manual" -- a 64-year-old
guide to battling guerrillas -- into his backpack.

"I brought it as a checklist or mental nudge," says the civil-affairs
officer. "[It] pretty much describes the intent of everything I do over
here: rebuild schools, roads and police stations."

It also describes a lot of things Maj. Chisholm isn't likely to see. Dozens
of pages are dedicated to the care and feeding of pack mules. "Never feed
fresh grass to an overheated animal," it warns. Some passages are, at the
same time, naove and patronizing: "Inhabitants of countries with a high
rate of illiteracy have many childlike characteristics ... eliciting the
untarnished truth from them requires patience beyond words."

Another section covers the "killing and dressing of game," warning that
meat cooked after rigor mortis has set in will be tough unless it is first
boiled in vinegar.

In its three-week drive to Baghdad last year, the U.S. military relied
heavily on satellite-guided bombs and supersonic jets. But now it is
looking to this anachronistic book for some answers. The 446-page manual
was born out of three decades of hard-won experience. From 1898 to 1934,
the Marines fought a number of small wars, in the Philippines, Cuba,
Honduras, China, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. They clashed with
guerrillas, built constabularies and held elections. Then, in 1940, a group
of Marines set out to capture in writing the lessons of those battles.

One year after their book was finished, the U.S. found itself embroiled in
World War II, and the manual was forgotten. The manual was classified until
1972. Thus, in Vietnam, where it might have been useful, it wasn't widely
distributed and wasn't much read.

Now, it is popping up everywhere. Last month, the Marine Corps passed out
copies to all officers headed to Iraq. William Luti, an adviser to
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and one of the architects of the Iraq
war, keeps a copy on a coffee table in his Pentagon office. He praises the
book for its keen recognition that in small wars support of the locals is
far more important than raw firepower.

"One of the visionary aspects of this work is its focus on the social and
psychological aspects of small wars," Mr. Luti says.
3
The Marine Corps Small Wars Manual, written in 1940. (Read the manual at
www.smallwars.quantico.usmc.mil4)



Democrats cite it, too. "We know how to fight wars like Iraq. We even have
a how-to guide in the Marine Corps's Small War Manual," Rep. Ike Skelton of
Missouri, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee
insisted last October at a hearing on Iraq reconstruction.

Some soldiers and Marines say the fat book has been mythologized by a
military that is struggling with change. "It's cited more often than it is
actually read," says Lt. Col. Richard Lacquement, who served with the 101st
Airborne Division in Iraq.

Col. Lacquement suggests that at a time when the U.S. military has been
pulled into an unfamiliar and complex guerrilla war, the book harks back to
the Banana Wars in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1920s and 1930s.
"The idea that we have a history of doing these sorts of missions well is
comforting for a tradition-minded organization like the military," he says.

Others say the book has caught on because there are so few alternatives.
"The Small Wars Manual is so popular today not because of its excellence --
although much of it is very good -- but because it has little serious
competition," says Army Maj. John Nagl, who is deployed near Ramadi, the
site of some of the fiercest fighting since the end of the war, and is the
author of a history of modern counterinsurgency.

In the absence of anything better, the book has become must reading for
muddy-boot troops. Before he embarked last week on a four-day mission to
track down enemy fighters raining mortars down on a U.S. base near
Fallujah, Marine Corps Capt. Adam Strickland reread the sections of the
manual that discuss how to cordon off an area infested with enemies.

Even the much-derided mule sections are proving useful in Iraq, he says.
Marines still keep a handful of mules in California to practice using the
animals to carry gear into war. "Unfortunately Marines get hung up on the
pictures of the donkeys with rockets on their backs, but what is ironic is
that we search every donkey we see here for that exact reason," he writes
from Iraq. And well they might. Last November, insurgents packed rockets
into a donkey cart and fired them at the Iraq Oil ministry.

In Afghanistan, Army Lt. Col. Raymond Millen, who helped write training
guidelines for U.S. troops working with the new Afghan National Army,
spotted the manual on a colleague's bookshelf. For him the sections on
building local constabularies proved prescient. In both Iraq and
Afghanistan, U.S. efforts to build native armies were plagued by
desertions. Recruits complained of poor pay and lousy equipment. At first,
U.S. officers worried about the message they'd be sending if they paid
young soldiers more than most Iraqis and Afghanis earn.

Eventually, the U.S. raised salaries. But had U.S. officers studied the
"Small Wars Manual" earlier, some missteps might have been avoided. "In
establishing an organization of native troops, attempts should be made to
provide better clothing and shelter and food than native civilians of the
same social class. This is ... an important morale factor," the book notes.

The Marine Corps earlier this year completed a draft update to the original
"Small Wars Manual" -- a project that had progressed in fits and starts for
almost a decade. One of the manual's principal authors, retired Lt. Col.
Noel Williams, was working on the document in the Pentagon on Sept. 11 when
a jet struck close to his office. Smoke and fire damage forced him to move
out of the building and finish his draft at a nearby annex.

One addition is a section that focuses on how the enemy has changed. When
the original manual was written, insurgents were motivated primarily by
nationalism and confined attacks to a single country. Today's enemies are
often driven by religious fervor and a desire to wreak havoc world-wide,
the update notes. Also, weaponry is potentially far more powerful. And
information technology has increased enemies' reach "to a global scale."

In addition to the printed manual, Col. Williams created a "Small Wars" Web
site where soldiers and Marines can post hints on everything from avoiding
roadside bombs in Iraq to surviving at high altitudes in Afghanistan. "I
wanted to give Marines the ability to print off the most current and
relevant postings and then stuff them in the pockets of their cargo pants,"
he says.

In February the Marines gave 100 copies of the draft update to officers
heading for Iraq and asked them to make suggestions for improving it based
on their real-world experience. But, Col. Williams says, "The original will
still be on the shelf. We'll still use it."


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'





More information about the cypherpunks-legacy mailing list