Invasion Of Iraq Case Study
1. Was the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 a mistake?
The invasion of Iraq is considered by many analysts and historians as a one of the largest military mistakes ever made by the United States. American while maintaining the embargo against Iraq, benefited from the repressive government of Saddam Hussein. American attempted to conduct a massive overwhelming invasion into Iraq, and rapidly shift to a “Policing Action” still grounded in the “You break it, you buy it” mentality that has driven American combat operations since World War I.
Once open hostilities were concluded, the vacuum left by the complete removal of government, security, and infrastructure was rapidly filled with emerging extremist’s organizations, and tribal identity movements. …show more content…
I was part of the initial surface strike package that was designed to be the “coup de grâce” assault on the leadership, and communication networks in Iraq. This is where American forces prove they are the most dominate for on Earth, and the ability to completely overwhelm and scatter a large standing army should never be underestimated.
I deployed into Iraq during the surge, this time filling a Targeting/Intelligence Officer role for Counter-IED operations. The surge at it’s core an attempt to quell the rising secularism brought on by the “Anbar Awakening” that saw the rise of religion based militias like Al-Qaeda of Iraq begin their Anti-Western/Anti Shia campaign. Returning to Iraq and continually debriefing, and conducting operations exposed the shortfalls of American “Policing” action within Iraq. American forces often operated under questionable informant intelligence, and the air weapon’s campaign was becoming more restrictive as the civilian casualties climbed.
Was the war in Iraq wrong? Right or Wrong at this point is irrelevant, I feel the war in Iraq (and continuing situation) didn’t necessarily need to become the mistake that we see today. Horrible resource management, lack of “ground truth” understanding, shifting policies, employment of traditional warfare tactics, and leadership (Bush/Obama) directly lead to the failure of coalition forces to maintain peace, and stability during the entire war.
The invasion of Iraq is considered by many analysts and historians as a one of the largest military mistakes ever made by the United States. American while maintaining the embargo against Iraq, benefited from the repressive government of Saddam Hussein. American attempted to conduct a massive overwhelming invasion into Iraq, and rapidly shift to a “Policing Action” still grounded in the “You break it, you buy it” mentality that has driven American combat operations since World War I.
Once open hostilities were concluded, the vacuum left by the complete removal of government, security, and infrastructure was rapidly filled with emerging extremist’s organizations, and tribal identity movements. …show more content…
I was part of the initial surface strike package that was designed to be the “coup de grâce” assault on the leadership, and communication networks in Iraq. This is where American forces prove they are the most dominate for on Earth, and the ability to completely overwhelm and scatter a large standing army should never be underestimated.
I deployed into Iraq during the surge, this time filling a Targeting/Intelligence Officer role for Counter-IED operations. The surge at it’s core an attempt to quell the rising secularism brought on by the “Anbar Awakening” that saw the rise of religion based militias like Al-Qaeda of Iraq begin their Anti-Western/Anti Shia campaign. Returning to Iraq and continually debriefing, and conducting operations exposed the shortfalls of American “Policing” action within Iraq. American forces often operated under questionable informant intelligence, and the air weapon’s campaign was becoming more restrictive as the civilian casualties climbed.
Was the war in Iraq wrong? Right or Wrong at this point is irrelevant, I feel the war in Iraq (and continuing situation) didn’t necessarily need to become the mistake that we see today. Horrible resource management, lack of “ground truth” understanding, shifting policies, employment of traditional warfare tactics, and leadership (Bush/Obama) directly lead to the failure of coalition forces to maintain peace, and stability during the entire war.