Guns, Money, Buildings and Tea: The Enduring Civil-Military Lessons of Contemporary Operations

Abstract

Australia’s Al Muthanna Task Group (AMTG) was charged with defending the Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group and setting the stage for the transition of the province to Iraqi control. This required not just one specific operation or another, but rather called on the AMTG to weave all of its activity into one, coherent act of civil-military cooperation (CIMIC). During the deployment of AMTG1, Australian officers and soldiers learned several important lessons about the conduct of CIMIC, realising that it is case-specific and that no blanket doctrine will ever exactly fit the situation; that money can be a weapon; and that coherent coordination of all action – whether specifically intended to shape perceptions or not – is important for CIMIC, as even the most innocuous trip “outside the wire” will make an impression on the local populace. These operations will continue to grow in both frequency and importance for the foreseeable future, and so these lessons must be taken to heart by the ADF when it again embarks on reconstruction during conflict.