Well, I've been back in Numaniyah for about a week now and not too much has changed other than the weather (it's hotter).

How did I manage to get back here? Turned out that as I was making arrangements to find a flight home, a group of Americans from Numaniyah had driven up to Baghdad to drop off a couple of guys who were getting ready to go home on leave. So I just caught a ride with these guys back home. Worked out well.

However, it's been a busy time down here at Numaniyah. We have officially transferred daily operations to our Iraqi counterparts. What does that mean? Prior to now the base operations have been run by Americans. We managed everything that happened on post - from cooking to maintenance to cleaning - you name it we managed it. On May 5^th we turned over primary control to our Iraqi counterparts. However, the transfer has been far from smooth so we have been busy sticking fingers in the dike as the Iraqis fail to succeed at various portions of their job.

Now, it's not that the Iraqis are incompetent. It's more like they have a severe tendency to not prepare adequately. We'd been trying to work with them in the weeks leading up to the transition to get them ready to run the post, but they don't take our advice very seriously. So, now that the time has come and it is now their job to run things they are discovering that they are woefully unprepared to do their jobs.

I kind of think of it this way: You have a fourteen year old boy who has a test coming up at school. You tell him he needs to study, but he blows you off. You warn him of the consequences if he doesn't prepare, but he ignores you. Then, on test day, he finally gets his test and realizes he is completely unprepared to take it. Now that he has the test in front of him he realizes he is going to fail. This is where we are with the Iraqis. Now that they have the responsibility they realize just how big the job is and just how unprepared they are to do it. So there's a little chaos as systems and organizations begin to unravel without proper administration.

Now mind you, they aren't being allowed to fail completely. That's why we're here. We give them a task, show them how to do it, then watch them to see how well they do. If they show they are unable to complete the task then we step back in to keep things running and do a little remedial training until the Iraqis are able to do the work on their own. The idea being that hopefully the Iraqis will be able to run the base without us at all. Someday. Eventually. Hopefully.

The frustration comes in the complete lack of regard the Iraqis show for our advice to them. Why do the Iraqis always have to wait until they experience the pain of failure before they start taking things seriously? This is why I often compare working with the Iraqis with dealing with a 13 or 14 year old boy. They refuse to listen to anyone else until they realize they are completely over their head.

All I know is I'm glad there are no Iraqis here to run the computers. I don't have an Iraqi counterpart I have to train. I suspect this is why I am so much more relaxed than everyone else on post *lol*