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| Major General Michael Nagata |
In December, Nagata was put in charge of training Syrian rebel forces to fight ISIS forces.
“We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it,” he said, according to the confidential minutes of a conference call he held with the experts that he is recruiting better understand ISIS. “We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.”
"Mike Nagata is as good as we have," Wade Ishimoto wrote about Nagata's reputation as a strategist, tactician, and planner in the Japanese American Veterans Association JAVA Advocate. "There is no doubt that if anyone can succeed in this tough task, it will be Mike Nagata."
He is known as a special ops warrior, in other words, untraditional. This may be a good trait if you are fighting an untraditional enemy such as ISIS, but in some circles, he can get in trouble for his unwavering commitment to his mission.
As highly praised as he is by his peers, he didnt make any friends among journalists. Some journalists wrote about his unusual tactics in Pakistan which caused a big uproar in that country. Nagata also then tried to discredit their reports to the House Intelligence Committee. The general told the committee that the reporters made incorrect conclusions based on insufficient evidence. However, the release of the Wikileak cables vindicated the reporters' stories.
As highly praised as he is by his peers, he didnt make any friends among journalists. Some journalists wrote about his unusual tactics in Pakistan which caused a big uproar in that country. Nagata also then tried to discredit their reports to the House Intelligence Committee. The general told the committee that the reporters made incorrect conclusions based on insufficient evidence. However, the release of the Wikileak cables vindicated the reporters' stories.
Nagata, who calls Hawaii home, has deep military roots. The son of an Army colonel, two of his uncles served in the legendary 442 Regiment, the Japanese American unit that garnered more field medals and commendations than any other unity during WWII.
He is the second Asian American general that's been assigned a difficult task in the Middle East. General Antonio Taguba, a Filipino American, was given the unenviable task to investigate reports of torture at Abu Graib in Iraq. What he found and what he reported proved to be embarrassing to the U.S. His report, though truthful, got him into hot water with his superiors in the military and the Bush-led White House because it confirmed the use of torture techniques on prisoners. It led to an early retirement for the distinguished military man."
Nagata's mission is a major departure from previous policy. Training the rebels will most likely create a trained military force that will continue to oust the current Syrian government. These are the same rebels that received military assistance and "volunteers" from Al Queda.
If Nagata and the U.S. are not careful, the strategy could backfire and we could be adding fuel to the volatile Middle East much like Afghanistan where the U.S. aided the Taliban against the Russian occupiers and then finds itself fighting the same fighters that they armed.
Nagata could end up a hero, or he could become a scapegoat.
Nagata's mission is a major departure from previous policy. Training the rebels will most likely create a trained military force that will continue to oust the current Syrian government. These are the same rebels that received military assistance and "volunteers" from Al Queda.
If Nagata and the U.S. are not careful, the strategy could backfire and we could be adding fuel to the volatile Middle East much like Afghanistan where the U.S. aided the Taliban against the Russian occupiers and then finds itself fighting the same fighters that they armed.
Nagata could end up a hero, or he could become a scapegoat.
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