LTC Christopher Dessaso served as the operations officer (S3) and as commander of a newly-formed transition team with the 3-89 CAV in Baghdad, Iraq during 2007-2009 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this May 2010 interview, LTC Dessaso discusses the implementation of counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy on his unit's mission, his experiences training and working with the Iraqi Army (IA) and Iraqi National Police (INP), and the affect of the uprising on the willingness of Iraqis to work with the Americans to take their country back. LTC Dessaso concludes his interview with the observation, "Nothing is going to change for the people on the ground until they stand up. At the end of the day nothing important happened until the militias attacked and then we had an opportunity. It took that before we could move forward. Everything else we did before that -- I wouldn't call it a waste of time -- but it was pomp and circumstance. It was coming and talking big and listening to people brag and doing fake missions. "We're going to cordon and search this neighborhood because we know there's nothing there and no one is going to shoot us there. We'll look like we're doing something even though we're not." Nothing happened until the uprising happened."

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