The Horse And The Cart

Let's pretend that you are a delivery person. You have a horse and a wagon that you use to make deliverys each and every day. This horse is your livelyhood right? What would your horse do if you didn't keep him fed and watered? How about keeping him clean? You wouldn't be in the delivery business long would you?

The Iraqi recruits keep getting sick, they aren't motivated, and whenever they can, they sit down or go to sleep. They get 2 pieces of bread for breakfast with 0.5L of water, they get about a half a cup of rice with 1.5oz of meat for lunch with 1L of water, and no dinner. One of our officers came out screaming and yelling this afternoon because the recruits weren't training. I made the analogy about the horse and cart and you know what he says to me? "Hey Doc, how much do these guys make every month?" I said, "About 300 bucks, sir." He replies "That's plenty of money to buy food."

They keep telling us that training the Iraqi soldiers is our ticket out of here. But it seems to me, that we have forgotten what it is they need if we want them to be a strong army capable and willing of protecting their country. As Napoleon said, "An Army marches on its stomach." Basic human needs are food, clothing and shelter. Without that, you can't do anything else.