Were Military Transition Teams Successful in Developing Competent Iraqi Leaders?

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Were Military Transition Teams Successful in Developing Competent Iraqi Leaders?

Introduction

Military Transition Teams (MTTs) were sent by US Army to Iraq to train the Iraqi military officials. These also contained other goals such as carrying out the non-kinetic actions to engage with the Iraqi populace as well as with the civilian leaders. The purpose of these military transition teams was to assist the Iraqi forces with decision-making, developing military intelligence, isolating and apprehending insurgents, planning missions, capturing and destroying weapons caches, and utilizing available air support. Therefore, the purpose of these teams was to train the Iraqi forces that lacked the capacity to deal with counterinsurgency operations. Further, these teams also provided them with resources such as transportation, food, and heavy artillery (House Committee on Armed Services, 2007; Ralph Dayton, n.d.).

Problem statement

This thesis wants to answer the question as to whether the military transition teams sent to Iraq were successful in developing competent Iraqi leaders. Here we see that these military transition teams had dual purposes. First, they had to provide the Iraqi Army with training in the battle skills and in the counterinsurgency operations which were its kinetic actions. Next, it was also to engage in non-kinetic actions and provide the necessary support to engage with Iraqi populace and the civilian leaders to develop them against the counterinsurgency. Accordingly, they received training in both of the kinetic and the non-kinetic actions at Fort Riley in Kansas. These teams comprised 11 senior military officials ranging from majors and captains to first lieutenants. Furthermore, these teams were also provided with four other personnel that were the interpreters, translators, and other coordination experts.

Therefore, the specific problem at hand is to identify the success of the military transition teams in their non-kinetic actions when ...