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Another Voice from the PRT Diaspora: Army Corp of Engineers
Here’s an excerpt from an email I received:
I was so thankful that you wrote such an exacting account of what was really going on over in Iraq. I was in Iraq in 2005 and saw first hand the waste fraud and abuse going on not only by the state dept. but even more so by the Army and the Army Corps of Engineers. You just barely touched the tip of the ice-berg. As a lowly GS-8 I tried in vain to get someone in the upper management to do something about what was going on. I had sent e-mails to my supervisor and as high as General Strock. Never got one return email.
It was as if there was an elephant in the room syndrome. I have been so angry ever since my tour there. I don’t trust the military command, and the Corps of Engineers is full of really incompetent people. I’m also ashamed to say there were so many people over there who really wanted to get things done but were so
hampered by management and military command, but didn’t have the integrity to speak out for fear of being sent home or getting in trouble with their sponsoring agency.Thank you again. Your book should be required reading for every politician and every tax paying American.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
From the PRT Diaspora: Nation-Building in One Sentence
From a development professional looking at State’s work in the reconstruction of Iraq:
To do it right takes some time and expertise. Blow in, blow off and blow out doesn’t work.
That about sums it up.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Another Voice from the Diaspora: Laughable, Contemptible, Horrific
Here is an excerpt from an email I received:I served (for lack of a better word) as a 3161 in PRT Kirkuk. From a corporate environment (which isn’t much more productive or innovative these days) the impotence, fraud and waste exhibited by both DoS and DoD was astounding, laughable, contemptible, and horrific. I too watched the USDA fumble about with fresh chicken ideas, micro dairies and hog-traps among other absurdities, when I wasn’t saying “NO” to countless Video TeleConferencing and computer projects that were exigent to reconstruction though the Kirkukees had only two hours of power a day.
That being written, I met a few good souls who wanted to do more, had believed the brochure, even some of your peers in the FS that aspired to finding value beyond their career DoS rap-sheet, but were hampered and hamstrung at every turn. I went to Iraq to see it for my own eyes, and to make a difference. I achieved both, though both those tasks were left unfinished. As for disillusionment, that was nothing short of complete.
But though this may come across as negative, I am not. I do however believe you cannot solve a problem until you’ve identified both it and it’s cause, and I’m not afraid of accountability. I want to thank you for speaking out and risking your career. As you’ve noted, the federal government environment is not conducive to truth, let alone reality, and apparently pluralism and opinion are supposed to die upon taking the Federal Oath.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
PRT Diaspora: Another Voice
Here are some remarks left on my Amazon book page that I thought were worth a wider audience. The writer calls himself “English Gent.” As best I know, we never knew one another in Iraq. He wrote:
I was one of the PMCs working alongside the PRT and actually uncovered the ‘Road to Nowhere.’ I worked alongside PRTs and assisted many despite not coming under PRT auspices. I met some wonderfully committed people attempting to good in a confusing and culturally complex environment. I also met buffoons of gargantuan proportions whose indifference to the stated mission of the PRT, and the Iraqi people as a whole was staggering, I witnessed projects that only the criminally insane could consider viable and reserve officers of such dubious, blimpish, quality that they actually stopped being amusing. I have ordered this book and will read it, I have so far seen nothing that doesn’t ring true. Nothing at all. I wish the author well, maybe now people will believe my seemingly outlandish tales of squander.
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
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