Vietnam was my generation’s “war to win the hearts and minds of the people,” and Iraq is the same kind of war for a new generation. Many of the problems we geezers faced in Vietnam the new kids are facing in Iraq, although some would say (and I am one of them) that the conditions are harsher now, and the stakes are higher.
In May, 2007, I began “embedding” with Army Civil Affairs soldiers in Iraq. As a young man I had served as a Vietnamese interpreter in a Civil Affairs unit, and although I hated the war I have cherished my memory of service in it. If infantry is “the point of the spear” in a shooting war, Civil Affairs is the spear point in the battle for hearts and minds. My intention in going to Iraq was to learn about modern Civil Affairs methods and objectives; to see how much better these soldiers have become; and to get some sense whether Civil Affairs can thrive in the current battle zone, and affect the outcome of the American enterprise.
You will find selected stories from my Iraq Journal here. Some of the stories were published in The Providence Journal, where I got a job and priceless training as a staff reporter forty years ago.






Hillary Channels CEO Bush
22-Mar-08It’s easy to see the similarity between George Bush’s conduct of his war and Hillary’s conduct of her campaign. The same arrogant assumption of invincibility; the same lack of competent planning; the same self-absorbed, intra-family aggression when things went wrong.
Hillary is playing the same game that Republicans have played against her and other Democrats for a very long time. It’s as if Bush, Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld wrote the book and her staff memorized it.
It’s easy to see the difference between Hillary’s executive skills and Obama’s. Unlike Hillary, Obama managed a goal-oriented, efficient campaign that was designed to collect delegates – the only tokens of success that actually matter. Competing against more “experienced” candidates – some of whom had been in presidential races before – Obama was able to collect a majority of delegates without intentionally alienating any Democratic constituency.
If America were a for-profit corporation, Obama would be the obvious choice for CEO.
Still touting her “years of experience” Clinton prays that super-delegates will see through her obvious mismanagement and imagine her to be a potentially more effective executive. But what a price they are paying for every minute that they don’t rein her in.
When she is finished tearing Obama down and wedging the party apart, she might be able to assemble enough fractured pieces to win the nomination. She might even win the election, and go on to run America the same way she has run her campaign. Are we looking forward to that?
Only a few days ago, Democrats were blessed with two candidates whom they respected and admired. The difference in delegates is slender and Hillary still has a chance to turn things around, to convince the party – super-delegates especially – that she is the better candidate.
She can still win on the merits, and she has plenty of merit to offer. She doesn’t have to vandalize the election to win.
It’s not too late for Hillary to run a campaign that will make us equally proud of our first and second place finishers. But she will have to stop using the Republican play book. She’s acting like a George Bush disciple, and compared to Hillary Clinton in George Bush mode even John McCain is beginning to look pretty good.
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Richard Galli is a writer, lawyer and Army veteran who spent six weeks in Iraq as a freelance journalist, embedded with soldiers performing Civil Affairs missions as he did in Vietnam. His dispatches from Iraq were published in The Providence Journal in 2007. He is the author of a novel, Of Rice and Men; and Rescuing Jeffrey, a memoir. His Iraq stories and photos can be found at http://www.gallireport.com