Major Christopher Lawson, a National Guardsman who deployed to Iraq with the 42nd Infantry Division, served as a project officer in Iraq from January to November 2005 and was assigned to work with and advise Iraqi oil security battalions. Based on his Iraqi Security Forces experiences, Lawson lays out in some detail how the various internal security forces in Iraq came into being, how they evolved as the private armies of the different ministries, why they came into competition with the new Iraqi Army, how they were rolled into the Army, and what kinds of problems this created. The oil security battalions Lawson advised were responsible for protection of the Iraqi oil wells and pipelines and originally worked for the Ministry of Oil. He explains that many of the problems with the oil security battalions come from their genesis as places for the friends and family members of the oil ministers, not people with military or police experience. The 11 battalions he was assigned to were responsible for an area entirely within the Sunni Triangle, including the pipelines which crossed the Tigris River at the Baiji Bridge. According to Lawson, the bridge, while always guarded, was being bombed all the time because "they were guarded by the oil security battalions who were corrupt - no doubt about it. If you're getting paid in this hand as an oil security battalion member and you can get paid in the other hand by the insurgents, you can get double the pay. It's really job security. You can go bomb and guard the pipeline at the same time - and we knew that was being done." He attributes some of the problems to the lack of a military culture and no sense of nationality, with each oil security battalion being tribal specific. With the sudden inclusion of the oil security battalions into the Army, there were not enough soldiers to properly advise them all and the quality varied greatly depending upon locality. The situation became even more confused as the duties of these battalions were expanded to all key infrastructures, and the oil companies hired their own private security details to guard their refineries. Lawson says that trust was a major challenge in Iraq, explaining, "You're sitting there with some oil security battalion commander and you're looking at this guy and he's about as sharp as a bowling ball. He doesn't have any tactical or operational experience whatsoever and he just doesn't have clue. He's just somebody's cousin wearing a uniform and you're thinking, 'This guy's as corrupt as the day is long.'" Lawson notes that it was rewarding when things got done, however small, and is nonetheless grateful for the experience of Iraqi culture firsthand. For other soldiers in similar situations, he recommends reading T. E. Lawrence.

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