Lessons from Iraq – Part 1

by Jack

A clear look back at the Iraq War. . .

After Saddam’s Army folded up a new fight began with what is known today as the “Insurgency:”   This was the name applied to anyone, Iraqi, Saudi, Yemeni, Iranian, etc., who took up arms against the USA and our allies inside Iraq.  But, when we drill down past this one-size-fits-all name, the “insurgency” involved many layers of disparate fighters with varied agendas.   However, in the most general terms, these so-called insurgents were mostly patriots, united by nationalism, and they were fighting to remove an occupying force…us.

The fundamentalist, be they Salafi, Sunni or Shiite were always going at each other.    The only thing that restrained them was an iron fisted dictatorship.  Saddam Hussein knew this and in his own brutal Middle Eastern way, it worked.  He kept the Bathist Party in power and a lid on sectarian violence, but at a cost of human rights.   Saddam was guilty of many crimes against humanity and in violation of the NATO treaty, but he knew how to keep his country from fratricide.   When we took over, we were not prepared to handle the peace because we didn’t understand the Iraqis.  Lesson:  It’s very hard to improvise while occupying, better to prepare and train well in advance.   Good intel is key to success.

The local sectarian fundamentalists under the new Iraqi government was not restrained, and they were well armed.  That was a major problem that cost many lives.  It also prevented any hope of lasting and meaningful reforms.  Fundamentalists are not big supporters of reconciliation, compromise and sectarian unity.   Fundamentalist, no matter who they represented, are people operating for their own self interest and when they are ready to die for what they believe they are beyond the reach of reason!  Lesson:  We can’t deal with fanatics.    We tried and we failed.

At best, what existed after the fall of Saddam Hussein and a decade of occupation was a weak, dysfunction centralized Shiite controlled government serving a population filled with anger, despair, distrust, jealousy and resentment, is it any wonder there was so much violence?

Lesson:  “The United States gets in big trouble when the “marketplace of ideas” breaks down and when the public and our leadership do not have an open debate about what to do.”  (ForeignPolicy.com)

During the Iraq occupation most of our federal representatives, both appointed and elected, that were charged with making the big decisions for Iraq didn’t have a clue what they were doing.   How else can you explain the appointment of a hog farmer as the American advisor on agriculture?  This is a comical example, but there were many others that had deadly results.   There are books written about the plethora of incredibly stupid things we did under the guise of nation building.

But, bad ideas didn’t stop with the Bush Administration; few in the Obama Administration had any better grip on the situation.   Actually Obama made it worse, far worse.  They had no vested interest in protecting the modest gains made under Bush and they demonstrated that by a precipitous withdrawal that broke a lot of promises to our Sunni tribal allies.   Obama’s only agenda was to get us out of Iraq as quick as possible.

He gave little or no thought about what we were leaving behind for the radicals, and of course now we have this ISIS mess and its a bigger threat than Saddam Hussein ever was.  One step forward and three back is not a good foreign policy.

History will label Obama and his minions as both stupid and short-sighted, but that’s slight consolation to the vets who gave their all to help Iraqi’s be free.    The Obama Administration didn’t care that Sunnis were now kicked to the curb by a Shiite government in Baghdad and this was a setup for disaster.   They were oblivious to the fact that this internal violence could still spread across the Middle East in the form of a massive sectarian war of Biblical proportions or in the form of an ISIS controlled country, neither of which is good for US security or global security…thats pretty stupid.

Aside from the coalition, there were always at least three forces at odds in Iraq.  Most of the Shiite militia activity was directed at Sunnis and they killed a lot of civilians!   Most of the Sunni insurgency was directed at the U.S. and everyone else and they too killed a lot of Shiite civilians.  Then there was Al-Qaida and they didn’t care who they killed.  And of course civilians were killed in the cross fire by everybody.  As in all wars, the civilians got the worst of it.  This is war.

Regarding A-Q, they were fighting for a new, idyllic, Muslim empire and we see that reflected today by the ISIS fighters who have replaced them.   And as we’ve sadly learned, they are worse than A-Q, they will kill anyone who doesn’t conform to their version of fundamentalist version of Islam, ala the 1500’s.  This is the nature of their Holy war.    Lesson:  “Counterinsurgency warfare is ugly and inevitably leads to war crimes, atrocities, or other forms of abuse.”

Unfortunately for our soldiers, the great lessons learned from the Viet Nam war were mostly ignored by our political leaders, and once again America had to learn  the hard way… with the blood of the frontline soldier.

Another lesson:  “The secularism and middle-class character of Iraqi society was overrated.” Before the war, advocates argued that democracy would be easy to install in Iraq because it had a highly literate population and a robust middle class, and because sectarianism was minimal.  We were wrong – our intel totally missed the mark on this one.

CONT-

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7 Responses to Lessons from Iraq – Part 1

  1. Chris says:

    I’m with you until this part:

    “Obama’s only agenda was to get us out of Iraq as quick as possible.”

    Obama may have said this, but behind the scenes he was trying desperately to get us to stay there longer. The Iraqi government would not agree to an extension of the timetable set by Bush despite Obama’s efforts.

  2. Tina says:

    Why make a public statement to leave Iraq if he was working behind the scenes to stay?

    He called Iraq the stupid war then without a plan set up conditions for chaos and the rise of ISIS.

    He could not negotiate an extension because he didn’t care. He was too busy showing the world the he was the smartest person to ever hold the office.

    We have had a military presence in Germany since WWII. We achieved that agreement because of the investment we made in defeating Hitler. We had the same authority (power) in Iraq. Obama sacrificed the advantage.

    We have dealt with fanatics before and quite successfully too. Our military is up to the task. But dealing with fanatics requires smart planning, follow through, and leadership with the ability and guts to make the hard decisions.

  3. Chris says:

    Tina: “Why make a public statement to leave Iraq if he was working behind the scenes to stay?”

    Are you honestly having trouble believing that President Obama would say one thing and do another?

    “He called Iraq the stupid war”

    Yes, well, he was right. Jack agrees–it was a stupid war. Now, saying this as president while the war was still going probably wasn’t very politically correct, in that it was a politically damaging thing to say. That doesn’t make it any less true.

    “then without a plan set up conditions for chaos and the rise of ISIS.”

    The Iraq War itself set up the conditions for chaos and the rise of ISIS. The blame must go back to the original architects of the Iraq War. This includes Democrats and Republicans. It does not include Barack Obama, who opposed the war even when doing so was unpopular.

    Now I think his handling of foreign policy since he became president has been only slightly less stupid than Bush’s, but had we listened to him at the time, we wouldn’t have been over there in the first place.

  4. Pie Guevara says:

    Re : “Obama may have said this, but behind the scenes he was trying desperately to get us to stay there longer.”

    Pure, unadulterated b.s. you serial liar.

    https://www.aei.org/publication/the-new-york-times-outlines-how-obama-abandoned-iraq/

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/obama-iraq-116708.html#.VYCg_GNY3mg

  5. Chris says:

    Pie, that AEI article seems to rely on a whole lot of mind reading:

    “First, Obama rejects the 24,000 troops American commanders requested. Then he rejects options for 19,000 and 16,000 troops and grudgingly agrees to the lowest number the military puts on the table, 10,000. Then then in the midst of his negotiations with Maliki, Obama cuts that number in half to 5,000.

    Maliki saw the writing on the wall. America was headed for the exits.

    For Maliki, 24,000 American troops might have been worth the political cost of giving Americans the immunity agreement they requested. Maybe even 10,000 would have been worth it. But 5,000 troops from a president who seemed eager to go to zero as soon as possible was not worth the political price to keep a miniscule US presence in the country.”

    We have no idea if Maliki would have been happier with a higher number of troops rather than a lower number. That is pure speculation.

    “Had Obama followed the advice of his commanders, and offered 24,000 troops, he could easily have reached an agreement with Maliki – and avoided the currently unfolding disaster in Iraq.”

    Now the author is taking his speculation to ridiculous extremes. He has no basis for believing that a negotiation would have been “easy” if he had promised more troops, he’s just declaring that because it helps his argument.

    “But Obama did not want to keep any Americas in Iraq.”

    Again, this is unfounded speculation.

    The politico link is thoughtful and interesting. I will have to give it more thought.

    I have little interest in defending Obama’s foreign policy strategies, which are generally a half-assed continuation of Bush’s. I do think it’s important to have the facts.

  6. Pie Guevara says:

    Good ol’ Chris, still desperately pimping his bald face lie about Obama not abandoning Iraq and trying “desperately” to hold on.

    Pure, unadulterated b.s.

    • Post Scripts says:

      Without any doubt Obama walked away from the promises made to Iraq by the USA; Chris couldn’t be more wrong if he thinks otherwise.

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