

It is an accounting technique used in managing inventory of produced goods, raw materials, parts, components, or feed stocks. Consideration must also be given to the fact that there may not be a nation to return them to due to the fact that the government is either fragile or simply nonexistent.įIFO is an acronym which means first-in, first-out. This process will help determine and shape the programs that will be conducted in an effort to deradicalize detainees and return detainees to the nations from where they came. In future operations, US senior leaders must take into account exactly what type of detainee the US has in custody: Is the detainee a fully radicalized insurgent leader or a person caught moving weapons for his local tribe? Part of this process will be to determine how each of these individuals will be assessed, classified, and placed. The US military must change the paradigm with regard to detention operations. In many cases it was simply “on the too hard to do list” as a consideration t0 counter. In many instances, US military personnel simply missed or ignored the war or detainee counterinsurgency which continued inside the US detention facilities throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. The concept was simply to build a large area or use preexisting facilities, guard it, and provide a safe and secure environment for the masses. Senior leaders within the US military often view detention operations as a supply problem rather than a challenging and continually changing dynamic with strategic level implications. It should be noted that these programs were nonexistent during the initial stages of military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. The same Rand study discussed the reeducation and vocational training of prisoners. More importantly, the United States simply has failed to capture many of the lessons learned from previous conflicts regarding the tactical through strategic lessons of detention operations. The overcrowding and stress were contributory factors which resulted in the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

For instance, the US did not have enough troops to guard the vast amount of detainees that were captured in the initial stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Some of these issues have resulted in strategic consequences which have plagued the US and its coalition partners. US military planners and policy makers simply have not prioritized this part of the military plan, and as a result, detention operations became an afterthought which has created various personnel and logistical problems. The Rand Corporation conducted a study entitled “The battle Behind the Wire, US Prisoner and Detainee Operations from World War II to Iraq.” Rand concluded that in each major conflict the US has been involved in from World War II up until present day detention operations, the US has taken in a large number of prisoners or detainees. It is Time to Reassess How the US Conducts Detention Operations in the Current Fight and the Need to Incorporate our Regional Partners in the Future - Insurgents are Not Traditional Enemy Prisoners of War
