Center for a New American Security

The Los Angeles Times has a nice profile this morning of Gen. Ray Odierno which quotes Brig. Gen. Joe Anderson, Odierno's chief of staff who will almost certainly be part of the team Odierno takes back to Iraq at the end of the summer.

Another person who will be part of that team, though, is the best counter-insurgent you've never heard of -- a diminutive Englishwoman named Emma Sky. Emma has spent the better part of the past 20 years living and working in Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. She is one of those tough, intrepid women the old British Empire excels at producing. She speaks Arabic and -- a card-carrying member of the Left -- opposed the Iraq War from the start. That hasn't stopped her from answering the call from the British government and helping, first, the CPA (she was "governess" of Kirkuk in 2003-2004), and then Gen. Odierno, for whom she served as political adviser in 2006-2007. Her concern for the people of Iraq was central to her philosophy long before population-centric counter-insurgency came into vogue.

Emma has no military background, so her learning curve has been a steep one. (When the 173rd Airborne was placed under her leadership in Kirkuk in 2003, she thought the whole "Sky Soldiers" thing a bit too much until she realized it wasn't for her they were named.) Her development background, though, and experience in the region has arguably better prepared her to be a counter-insurgent than Gen. Odierno's life-long training in conventional military operations.

Coinciding with Gen. Odierno's appointment to be the next commander in Iraq is the publication of Emma's insider account of the surge in this quarter's RUSI Journal. For copyright reasons, Abu Muqawama can't do his usual thing and post the entire document in the comments section. But if you have an academic or professional account and can access this document, do so. This paper was adapted from the best presentation Abu Muqawama has heard on Iraq in years. Emma concludes:

Iraq is going through a revolution. While we all may hope that the worst of the violence is behind us, Iraq still has a long way to go before it becomes a viable state and its people come to terms with past injustices and learn to move forward together. 2007 may come to be viewed as the year that set the conditions for sustainable stability. Alternatively, it might be remembered as the year in which the country became more fractured and divided into fiefdoms run by warlords; or as the year in which the various factions positioned themselves for a future civil war, with the United States assisting the Sunni Arabs. We have witnessed notable success in bringing down the violence, but the government has yet to make sufficient progress in developing its capacity and legitimacy, and in narrowing the gap between itself and the people.