The US military and the mystery of Emma Sky
If I said Emma Sky and you didn’t have the wonders of Google at your fingertips would you know who she is? Ii is a good trivia question for the Thanksgiving period. Certainly she is less well-known is Gen. Ray Odierno, the US Commander in Iraq, but as far as the future strategies of the West there she is arguably more important. Emma Sky is a long time worker in the region. She has worked in NGO’s, diplomatic , charitable and civil groups in the region, She was once a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq. She is unusual; fluent in Arabic and Hebrew, and has worked in conflict zones from Israel to Afghanistan. In terms of hours in the zone, she has spent more time Iraq than most soldiers. If you take a look carefully at any photograph of Gen. Odierno, you might just spy at the edge of frame a glimpse of the British civilian Emma Sky, who is rarely more than a few meters away.
This is nothing illicit in the relationship of Odierno and Sky. If you like historical comparisons, she is more akin to Gertrude Bell and her strategic relationship with Lawrence of Arabia. She is a co-conspirator in the future direction of US involvement. She is the adviser, confidante, cultural attaché and mentor to Americans who are confused in the face of Arabic society. American culture is popular, but it ill prepares an American commander for engaging with ancient and nuanced societies. We have reported on this culture clash in relation to the Afghanistan strategy. Iraq is no different and America takes advise from where it can. It turned to Australian strategist, David Kilcullen to design the surge that changed the direction of the US campaign, and now it relies on the subtle guidance of a British regional expert, Emma Sky, for how best to engage with Iraqis. That is the best of American pluralism at work and is a silver lining in what has long been a deep cloud over the region.
Emma was able to give me a completely different perspective: it was from an Iraqi viewpoint,” General Odierno said.
“We didn’t have a lot of experience in doing these things, so someone with her background and knowledge was able to assist us as to how we could best help civilians.”
One senior foreign diplomat said that the very presence of a civilian political adviser at the right hand of a senior American military commander was a sign of the extent to which military strategy now strives to take into account the political and cultural landscape of conflict.
Outsiders’ points of view on Iraq began to be aggressively sought about three years ago, when counterinsurgency strategy began to permeate every aspect of military thinking. According to the new doctrine, operating successfully in hostile places required understanding how local people saw the situation and whom they viewed as friends or enemies.
Ms. Sky sees herself as part aid worker, part political operator, part cultural translator.
“I’m experienced in working in different cultures. The most alien culture I’ve ever worked in is the U.S. military,” she said with characteristic candor. “I was used to working in the humanitarian space, the diplomatic space. I came to Iraq and that space, the military, is all over it.”
Rather than remaining an outsider, however, she decided to try to effect change from within. Initially she worked as a British Foreign Ministry employee detailed to the American command; more recently, she has become an American contractor.
DESPITE her insider’s post, she prides herself on retaining an outsider’s view of the military, saying things to top brass that others will not. During the troop buildup in 2007 known as the surge, she said that attacks on insurgents that also resulted in civilian casualties were tantamount to “mass murder.”
“When you drop a bomb from the air and it lands on a village and kills all those people and you turn around and say, ‘Oh we didn’t mean to kill the civilians,’ well, who did you think was living in the village?” she said.
That is now conventional wisdom.
Saturday Profile – Emma Sky, a Civilian Voice at Odierno’s Side in Iraq – NYTimes.com
