The first one, brought to my attention by Kimchee GI, is an editorial by Dr. Sheila M. Jager posted on the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College reflecting on lessons from Korea that might be applied to U.S. efforts to build Iraq’s security forces from the ground-up. Read it in its entirety—here’s the intro:
The creation of a viable Iraqi security force has been the sine qua non of our success in Iraq (and the withdrawal of our military). The key question is, is this still feasible? This is not the first time we have undertaken such a task. Some succeeded (the Balkans and El Salvador), some failed (Vietnam), and some are ongoing (Afghanistan). But it was in South Korea, after its liberation at the end of World War II, where we first attempted to build a national security force from the ground up. And the effort was successful. Indeed, we undertook this task twice in South Korea, first before the Korean War; and, second, to rebuild the destroyed armed forces during and after the Korean War. While the failure of the young South Korean army to stem the tide of the North Korean attack on June 1950 had more to do with the failure of our policy to build an adequate military force against a conventional attack, it also obscured the success of the South Korean security forces in conducting counterinsurgency operations against the widespread North Korean-supported leftist insurgency in the south. There is much to be learned from our experience in Korea that should inform our current efforts in Iraq.
Interesting stuff.
The second one, sent to me by a reader, is an interview in the WSJ (sunscription required) with North Korean propaganda specialist Brian Myers. Pyongyang Kremlinologists abound, but few have as keen an understanding of North Korean propaganda as Mr. Myers, so when he speaks, it’s best to listen.
2 Comments
Didn’t they just re-instate most of those who served under the Japanese? All of the top military brass had trained under Japan by the time of the Korean war, most of the upper levels of police were j-trained well past the war. could find some sources for that if anyone’s really interested.
Now, if anyone DID train up security forces from scratch in Korea, it was north of the border, where (unlike the south), all j-collaborators were swiftly removed from office. Guess the author couldn’t suggest US ops taking lessons from the norks tho’
As noted in the OP, the ROK with some alleged help from Uncle Sam cleaned out any individuals or groups with strong leftist leanings, so its newly trained military had no enemies. Iraq, whose cities and regions are divided into Sunni and Shiite strongholds with international backers, will not be cleaned out of insurgents so easily.