Using mistrained troops in Iraq

Rex Kramer, apparently a former US Ranger and host of the very clever and funny Spurious George, made some fascinating observations in the comments of a post yesterday.

The short version is that the redeployment of troops from their long term traditional stations, Korea for example, has them operating in Iraq without the proper tactical training for a counterinsurgency. The soldiers in Korea, again as example, have spent years studying and training for tactics and battles against North Korea and China leaving them with an illfitting tactical background for deployment to fight a counterinsurgency in Iraq. The same goes for soldiers out of Germany and other groups which have been training for decades for specific threats.

I know there have been lots of reports of soldiers being utilized outside their MOS, and even soldiers from other branches of service being brought in to fill roles in the Army, but I never thought about the complications of deployment outside of regional threat training. I just found it really interesting. If you've got a few minutes, take a read. I just never thought about it that way.