Evening briefing with Rageh Omaar
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Iraq faces a “long and bloody stalemate” because American military personnel lacked the flexibility to communicate and empathise with community leaders, according to Rageh Omaar.
Speaking at last week’s Personnel Today HR Directors Club briefing in London, the journalist and broadcaster said he had witnessed a marked difference in approach between American and British forces in Iraq that had impacted on the levels of post-war insurgency in the north and south of the country.
“Basra and the south of Iraq should have been much more volatile as it was the Shia heartland - but it didn’t react violently to British control,” he said. “Baghdad, which was the heart of government and business, should have been more peaceful, but has suffered higher levels of insurgency under American control.”
Former BBC foreign correspondent Omaar blamed this on the Americans’ over-reliance on systems and logistics and their tendency to to execute political orders without improvisation. “The British, on the other hand, are good at improvising and using all available means to achieve their goals,” he said.
“British commanders considered it important to convince local people to change. But the Americans wouldn’t listen to British advice.”
Omaar, who has joined the international arm of Arab news network Al-Jazeera, which launches in September, said that any long-term solution would now have to involve the Iraqi insurgents.
“It’s going to be about building alliances, talking to the insurgents and giving them alternatives. We can’t pull out now - I think we’re going to be in Iraq for a long time.”
9 Jun 2006
