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May 25, 2007

The Center for Lessons Learned

Four years into the Iraq War, what have we learned? Soldiers, civilians, Iraqis, and Americans talk—and sometimes yell—about what they've learned in the last few years...including how to stay alive and why the aftermath of a war can be the trickiest time of all.

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Prologue

There's a 200-person operation based out of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas called the Center for Army Lessons Learned. Host Ira Glass speaks with Colonel Steve Mains, who runs the Center, and with Craig Hayes and Lynn Rolf, two men who answer soldiers' requests for information. They explain what they're learning from soldiers in the field in Iraq, then and passing on to other soldiers. (6 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

Cassandra

This American Life producer Nancy Updike tells the story of Conrad Crane, the head of the U.S. Army Military History Institute. Along with Andrew Terrill, he was commissioned by the Army to look at previous post-war occupations and give advice about how to stabilize and reconstruct post-war Iraq. The booklet they produced, which includes nine pages of detailed instructions on how to occupy Iraq, predicted many of the problems that eventually came to haunt the occupation. Although it was admired by successful commanders in Iraq, including H.R. McMaster, Updike explains why it was ignored by Pentagon officials. (22 minutes)

By

Nancy Updike

Song:

“Instrumental” by Arthur Russell

Second Half Prologue

Ira speaks with Milt Hileman of the Center for Army Lessons Learned about the single most-requested publication they put out, Soldiers' Handbook: The First 100 Days: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures. It explains how to avoid getting killed in your first hundred days in Iraq, which is when a disproportionate number of U.S. casualties occur. The information in the booklet came from Iraq vets. (5 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act Two

Am Not. Are Too. Am Not. Are Too.

What lessons are civilians taking from the War? One journalist has said that Americans seem condemned "to relive the prewar debates over and over because they were never thrashed out in the sunlight." In Salt Lake City on May 4, the prewar arguments—and some other arguments as well—were re-argued, on stage, by Salt Lake's liberal mayor Rocky Anderson and conservative radio and TV host Sean Hannity. Scott Carrier attended the event. (13 minutes)

By

Scott Carrier

Song:

“Nobody Knows My Name” by Rickie Lee Jones
Act Three

The Lessons Of Tomorrow, Today

For all the discussion in Congress about withdrawing troops, there seems to be very little serious discussion about why, about what'll happen to Iraq once we leave, about responsible ways to withdraw. To understand better these and other rarely-discussed questions about the war, we turned to Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks in Baghdad. A new edition of his book Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq was released with an afterword discussing some of these questions. (9 minutes)

By

Thomas Ricks
Bonus

More on The Center for Lessons Learned

We found ourselves in a strange situation with this show: We had a great story that was literally hard to hear over the radio. It's a phone call with a 20-year-old medical student in Baghdad, and the audio quality is a little too sketchy for broadcast, but not too terrible to listen to sitting at a computer or—even better—on headphones.

Related

If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
429: Will They Know Me Back Home?
Mar. 11, 2011

Act One

Ever wondered what you might do with 18 days of rest after serving 15 months in combat? Reporter David Finkel followed one group of soldiers in Iraq for 15 months, and reported all of it in his book The Good Soldiers.
281: My Big Break
Jan. 21, 2005

Act Two: What Happens In Baghdad, Stays In Baghdad

Two young men, Jeff Neumann and Ray Lemoine, decide it'd be interesting to be part of the rebuilding of Iraq.
686: Umbrellas Up
Oct. 18, 2019

Act Six: Two Weeks Later

The 22-year-old woman from the beginning of the show catches up with producer Diane Wu.

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