Lion 6 hauls down the battle flag in Iraq:
After nearly nine years of war, tens of thousands of casualties—including 4,500 dead—and more than $800 billion spent, the U.S. military on Thursday formally ended its mission in Iraq and prepared to leave the country.
For years, commanders in Iraq have handed off to their successors the top call sign, Lion 6, along with the American battle flag adorned with a Mesopotamian sphinx. But on Thursday, in a tradition-drenched ceremony with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta looking on, the current Lion 6, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, pulled down the colors and cased them for a return to the U.S…
At Thursday’s end-of-mission ceremony, Mr. Panetta evoked the most important battles of the war in Fallujah, Ramadi and Sadr City. He returned to a theme he has struck all week while visiting troops in Djibouti, Afghanistan and Iraq: American service members have given Iraqis the opportunity to make their own future. The hardships and losses endured by America’s military, he said, were not in vain because they led to a free Iraq.
The war in Afghanistan to root out al Qaeda was at first an unambiguous necessity and unqualified success. The FA-18 squadron I had the privilege to command helped to quickly consummate that early victory, but they did it without me: I had already transferred to duties as the operations officer on America’s Flagship. My war would be different, both in location and in kind. Not for me the laser guided bomb delivery on a hardened target, nor the close air support mission for troops in contact. Not for those of us who fought it the full support of a united people.
In the build up to Operation Iraqi Freedom – my war – we were aware of dissent at home, and among our traditional partners. Some very close to us declined to commit forces, there were mass protests in the streets of our best partners, while others who had never buckled on their armor alongside US infantry in modern times sent their most valuable soldiers. But those who went were volunteers, the soldiers of free peoples.
Blogging, this thing of ours, was still relatively new in 2003. But it was a vibrant way to get past the traditional gate-keepers of information, and see what real people were thinking back at home, outside the political spin machines and polished surfaces of media that were, if not openly biased, at least unaware of their cognitive lenses. Through a slow internet connection in off moments, I trolled through pages of commentary, some well-informed, some less so, some atrocious. I thought to myself that there were stories worth telling that I ought to share. The perceptions of those with some skin in the game.
Such a viewpoint is necessarily personal. I think I taught a little, and learned a lot in the give and take this format provides. Over time, my positions hardened on the war, just as they did for most American citizens.
At first it seemed so easy, as our air/land maneuver elements quickly crushed what was one of the world’s largest conventional armies. But we were unprepared for our “catastrophic success,” and the looting and pillaging quickly became endemic. We had no plans to machine gun a people we had just liberated, and furloughing the Iraqi army – the iron fist of the ancien regime – seemed to unleash all civilized restraints that once bound a long oppressed people. It also placed hundreds of thousands of military aged males, resentful at their loss of status, humiliated by their defeat and with no real work to do, at liberty to simmer and plot personal revenges. In retrospect, that might have been our first strategic mistake of the occupation. But it’s hard to believe that restoring order using a conquered Iraqi army would have been preferable.
We were introduced to tribal notions that never had any currency in our own society, blood grudges and solatia payments for non-combatant casualties. As brutalities from ethnic enmities heaped horror upon horror, we began to ask ourselves, “Who are these people?” A question we should have asked ourselves before committing to nation-building, and one that we still struggle with today.
Everyone was sickened by the revelations of abuse and torture represented by criminals wearing US uniforms at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004, but people drew differing conclusions. Abu Ghraib certainly represented a public relations disaster, and undoubtedly stiffened the backs of the Iraqi resistance. Thousands more died, and many thousands more will forever bear the scars, because of the actions of a handful of morally degraded national guardsmen.
The national election in 2004 was a victory for George W. Bush and his partisans, but it came at the bitter cost of further entrenching political differences, contributing in no small measure to the current toxicity among the political classes. In 2006, the Samarra “Golden Mosque” was destroyed, and Iraq slipped ever deeper into sectarian chaos. We openly debated the cost of leaving Iraq in disorder, the world’s sole superpower skulking home in disgrace, versus the grinding slog it would take to leave the Iraqi people with at least a chance at self-improvement. President Bush committed surge forces in one desperate gamble, essentially committing all forces at his command while maintaining a grueling rotational relief capability. The surge was deeply unpopular at home, but arguably changed the calculus of the Sunni sheiks in Ramadi and Fallujah, and the Shia masses is Sadr City.
We have transformed Iraq. Theirs is now at least notionally a free society, they control the reins of their own destiny. It cost us 4500 lives taken, tens of thousands mutilated and close to a trillion dollars. It cost the Iraqi people the lives of least 100,000 who will not get the opportunity to enjoy that freedom. And Iraq transformed us.
An army that had prided itself on speed and precision, learned the virtues of restraint, patience and endurance. A Marine Corps designed to fight “from the sea”, became instead a counter-insurgency land force entrenched in the toughest deserts. A people that once chanted “USA” like they were watching some Olympic sports contest grew weary of the fighting long before the fighting was done. The army and Marine Corps went to war, over and over again. Sailors and airmen donned camouflage and bore rifles. We went back to the mall.
We leave the Iraqi people with a fighting chance at peace and prosperity. They leave us with a heightened sense of our own limitations.
Haul down the battle flags, and case the colors. Bring them home in honor, and lay them proudly by those from elder wars in Europe and Asia. Let us think more deeply, and plan more carefully, before we add to their number.
Bring the soldiers home too, and forgo the victory parade in lieu of quiet thanks for their sacrifices, and public support for their for their betterment. We do not deserve them, but we owe them nonetheless.
And we may have need of them again.
Reminds one of Kiplinger’s “Tommy”
That would be Kipling, Rudyard. And yes it does.
I stand corrected…must have been a brain fart..thanks GB
Kipling, indeed. But this, to me:
“The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers.”
I’m convinced that there are several lessons that need to be relearned (they were obvious before) from the Iraq campaign.
First is the Three Year Limit. Historically, Americans have been willing to fight like lions for 36 months. After that, they will demand to see either victory within reach or a disengagement being attempted – and if they see neither come Election Day, woe betide the party in power. The Three Year Limit has held true for EVERY conflict the United States has fought.
Second is the need to avoid COIN. There are several ways to do this. The most obvious is a Smash-And-Leave strategy. Your country makes trouble, we go in, break everything in sight, and walk away. Survival is your problem. The other strategy is to Recruit Local Auxiliaries. Hire the Iraqi Army. Use it as a cheap force to pacify Iraq – or Afghanistan. In particular, hire the officer corps. In many of these cultures, being an officer carries a lot of social status – and demobilized officers can make a lot of trouble.
Third, make sure the opposition KNOWS they lost. Mount your victory parade in Bagdhad…and a bigger one in Tikrit. Demand the formal surrender of every town in sight, the formal parole of every enemy fighting man. Don’t humiliate – you can be as generous as Grant was with Lee. But make it as clear as Grant did at Appomattox who won.
And finally, if you really MUST do nation-building, don’t let the locals wrangle over a constutition. Follow the good example set by Douglas MacArthur (a fine proconsul, if nothing else) and HAND the locals a constutition. Get some sort of government of locals set up fast.
I’ll add two more points.
Keep reminding the home front Why We Fight. The Bush administration did a terrible job of this. John Q. Public didn’t go to the mall, he was TOLD to go to the mall by George W. Bush.
Who should have been taking every opportunity to remind people why we were fighting.
And if you are going to do this, make a point of favoring your own country in any rebuilding efforts. This business of Chinese buisinesses getting concessions to exploit Afghan natural resources is a crock. You shouldn’t be intent on looting a country, but try to cut your losses to a minimum.
MikeM/
I dunno about this crowd here at Lex’s place, it seems like half of them seem to be my long-lost blood-brother–and you’re just the latest example. GREAT two comments–”covers the waterfront” as it were. And gee, I didn’t know you were a mind reader! I was about to make the exact same points–but then I guess “long-lost blood brothers” must be same same as “mind-meld” twins, n’cest-ce pas?
Just a little test –
Top me off with some of that 5 Star.
Seriously, are you back in NO?
Jerry Pournelle was in favor of smash-and-leave from the beginning. Sadly, the movers and shakers no longer listen to him. Hell, I think the current bunch of ems and esses don’t even know he exists. S and L works like a charm on some kinds of people.
Actually, with regard to Iraq, Dr. Pournelle was an opponent. He considered the Hussein regime contained.
I’m not so sure about that part, but we are in 100% agreement that the occupation effort was completely botched. The neocons had this notion that Iraq would be like France in 1944. Kick out the bad guys, stay long enough to celebrate, then move on.
Instead, it turned out to be more like Germany or Japan in 1945. Occupation duty…with the added burden of the notion that democracy was an instinctive form of government, not a learned skill. Iraq could have been run by a humane but authoritarian transitional regime, but no…we had to play the Democracy Game. At a terrible price.
We may have won, but it’s a victory worthy of Pyrrus.
MikeM/
An architect friend of mine from Louisville, upon hearing of the appointment of a non-uniformed relative unk civilian pro-counsel of a post-war Iraq and of little-known public stature with a charge to push the “democratization”/”de-Nazification” agenda, said of him: “They won’t respect this guy or even be afraid or fear the consequences of his displeasure…hell, they’ll probably throw fruit at him.” And, as events later proved, throwing fruit (and/or shoes) was the least of it. Instead of “An American Caesar” we got a series of stiff-necked, hard-headed Dudley Do-rite” do-gooder–as opposed to someone well-versed in hard-headed realpolitic.”
I feel confident – unfortunately – that we will have need of them again. What I am not confident of is whether we will have civilian “leadership” that will pay attention to the lessons we’ve learned and that will have the will to use them if necessary.
+10
RonF – Please remind me again what real “need” we had then, before we ever will contemplate a similar need again.
What was the need that cost $806 billion, 32,000 wounded, 4,500 US dead, 110,000 civilian dead, a million refugees? What need was it that will cost in the future $500 billion in veterans’ health care?
What need was it that empowered Iran, created a terrorist training ground, diverted needed resources from Afghanistan, caused a loss of our international standing, fueled sectarianism in the region, etc.?
Remind me.
To quote Lex: “Bring them home in honor, and lay them proudly by those from elder wars in Europe and Asia. Let us think more deeply, and plan more carefully, before we add to their number.
Let us not be too anxious next time to rush in again as fools, where wiser men rightly fear – and haven’t the real need – to tread.
I’ll take a stab at this:
(1) The NEED: the need was to rid the world of Saddam. He destabilized the area and threatened the world’s oil from that area. The ‘need’ would not have been present in 2001+ if George HW Bush had done the right thing back in the first Gulf War…he and his lacked foresight and wimped out with help and cheering from Colon Powell; had they done the job then with the power in-place and no time for Saddam to re-think and plan for the later invasion and post-invasion, a different story (OR they could have supported the homegrown rebellion that they allowed Saddam to put down; something for which they should be called upon to answer for). I don’t know the cost to the USA of maintaining our “containment/no-fly” and the pathetic “sanctions” against Iraq for a decade, but factor that cost savings into the either-or calculation of what the later war cost us. The Need was for us to have a changed slate in the region with a friendlier centralized country acting as our base from which to oversee changes over time. I think that weak knees here, in response to politically-fueled opposition (which cares only for their own success and to-Hell-with what is good for the USA – in the main thy names be Democrats).
(2) EMPOWERED IRAN: Iran was ‘empowered’ since the late 1970′s when they effectively declared war on the USA and we declared we wanted to ignore it and to have them go away. They did not need us to be in Iraq to be ‘empowered’ and it is lame to blame the Iran problem on Iraqi Freedom. They have been targeting and killing Americans since then and our “leaders” have done squat.
(3) “Our international standing”: Yeah, right. The people who hated us already hated us more; the others either like us or don’t like us, depending on the day of the week or their own perceived need-of-the-week. Worrying about “our international standing” makes for the need to ask permission of our friends at the UN before we do anything. I have no respect for this argument whatsoever as it renders us to be the international affairs version of Sally Field accepting her Oscar.
Oops, add to paragraph (1), above: . . . weak knees(…) here caused us to alter the way the mission was undertaken and ultimately caused the result to be less successful than it could have been…and hence, it is all now at-risk which might yet draw us back in.
Well said.
I have often wondered why we go into these countries but never get them to adopt a Constitution like ours. They always end up with a parliamentary government – one where political parties dominate, where people vote for a party instead of a person. This ensures that unelected people can exercise power all out of proportion to their position in government and how many votes they themselves may have gotten. Note that our own Constitution doesn’t mention political parties at all. That was not an accident.
Good posts,all. I fear that we have just given Iran it’s
own Sudetenland…
A goodly chunk of eastern Iraq used to be part of Persia. Frankly, I look for Iran to dominate Iraq.
A good chunk used to be part of the Roman Empire as well, I don’t think anything is foreordained here…
I well remember 2003 and the anti-feelings I encountered as Mrs Hogday and I backpacked our way across Australia and New Zealand to rid our minds of a life of policing freedom and get some of our own. The day the first airstrikes went into Baghdad we were in Rotorua, NZ and I had just strolled up to the bar of the YH we were staying in (though neither of us can claim to be a `Youth`). CNN was showing the strikes and my cockney voice called for `two pints of bitter`. All eyes turned to me. I was then surrounded by Aussies and Kiwis and subjected to a series of questions and statements about why GB was up to its top lace holes in this war and what they thought of it. There was then a quiet pause which I assumed was for my response. I think I said that we back the US because they asked us to and the info at the time (and as wed been fed it) made it a just cause. I politely pointed out that we had 50,000 fighting personnel involved, and several of them were neighbours and personal friends and as far as I was concerned, I back our forces 100% even if I might not back the politico’s who committed them. I then asked the rhetorical question of the Kiwi’s, `how many have you committed`? None, so don’t push your luck with me. I finally politely explained that as a result of the latter, plus the fact that they were on the outer edge of the Pacific Rim and that we don’t even buy their lamb any more in great quantity, that they should do what they do best, help the injured when they come back and then leave me alone or change the subject. The barman agreed, told them all to STFU and I drank the first round on the house. So yes, Lex, opposition from our friends was one of the toughest things to contend with.
I’ve long wondered how things might have turned out differently if in 1991 we had given those 60,000 Iraqi POW’s weapons and training and sent them back to retake their country themselves, with minimal support.
I also thought that when we were discussing what we would do in the aftermath, during the lead up to the invasion, that we should just bomb all of the suspected WMD sites, all the military installations, and infrastructure and leave a smoldering ruin as a warning. “Rebuild” what rebuild.
I also had the distinct impression that GWB was forced into some of the “spending like a drunken sailor” because he had to to buy any support he could from the Dems, who frankly, behaved abominably.
PS: To Lex, and to those of you who’ve fought in these two wars: Thank you.
Historians will debate the reasons we went into Iraq but those who no longer live under Saddam’s terror are better off. Like most fights, we paid a high cost in blood & treasure. Americans have done so before and will always be the ones who make the sacrifices. It is part of our DNA.
I was in Fallujah, Mumidiyah & Baghdad from 09/2004 – 03/2005 and saw plenty of heat. Those who needed our help (average Iraqis) were desperate and needed us. I remember those we lost and those who told me in broken english how much they appreciated that we came to help them.
Well done to our troops and their families, and a big “Thank You!” to all of them.
After that, there is not a lot of good to say about this sorry endeavor and expenditure of blood and treasure.
Instead of a series of bases in the midst of the irrational turmoil that is the Mideast, we have left a vacuum to be filled by unknown forces, but in all likelihood hostile to freedom and the west.
Meanwhile, we have dissed and distanced ourselves from our only true ally in the region, Israel, and funded our frienemies the Paks to the tune of billions of dollars.
On a semi-related note:
US Will Leave Iraqi Airspace Open for Israelies
Oooppps. My HTML tag skills are lacking. Maybe this one will work.
<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/14/us-will-leave-iraqi-airspace-clear-for-strategic-i/"_blank"
Here’s how the Iraqis in Fallujahs celebrated. We threw away a lot of young Americans for nothing. What’s coming will be as bad or worse than Saddam.
http://randomactsofpatriotism.blogspot.com/2011/12/celebrating-return-of-troops-from-iraq.html
And we will need of them again.
Unfortunately.
Well, you guys know me well enough to have seen this coming.
I have two questions: Was there a band? If so, what did they play?
To get serious: I commend hbdchick’s blog to y’all’s attention again. She specializes in studying tribal/kin behavior and how it affects societies. Tribal-oriented societies really are Not Like Us.
Greetings:
Me, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to handle all the Muslim gratitude. You’ve heard of Muslim gratitude, haven’t you? It’s like a Missouri-Warhol River; a verbal mile wide, an actual inch deep, and flows for about 15 minutes.
As long as they keep that Islam millstone around their necks, they’ll be staying in the 7th Century, A.D.
When I was at CENTCOM in 2002, I was aware of, though not involved with, the planing efforts for OIF. At the time I could not understand the strategic neceessity of going to war with Iraq at that time. I kept asking myself, “why are we doing this now?” Especially since we’re engaged in Afganistan. There were good arguments made about the need to rid the world of Saddam and his WMD. But I wasn’t convinced in 2002 that this threat had risen to the level of a “clear and present danger.” Others argued that the nofly zones were costing us $1 billon a year. $1 billion a year is a lot of money…but not as much as a war would cost.
Early the next year while at EUCOM, I worked deploymemt issues for forces transiting EUCOM on their way to CENTCOM and I was informed the TPFDD was not going to be used. Again, I asked myself why?
I recently finished reading the book “COBRA 2″ and can only conclude that hubris was behind the whole idea of OIF. Judged by the mixed results to date, the jury is still out as to whether OIF was a strategic win or a strategic loss. The seeds of democracy have been planted, but the desert is a harsh environment. Iran has emerged in a stronger position despite what others on the board may claim and we’ll be dealing with the strategic damage to the USA in terms of blood and treasure for several years to come. Particularly since we fought the war on credit.
It is a fallacy to think of Iraq as a separate war. It was merely one theater in the larger war between the western and Islamic worlds. The end of US troops in Iraq is analogous to driving Rommel out of North Africa. Good, but by no means the end.
One thing that people forget when discussing the decision to go into Iraq is that we cannot compare post invasion 2012 to pre invasion 2002. We must compare what we have lost and gained with what we would have lost and gained by 2012 if we hadn’t invaded. The sanctions regime was crumbling in 2002. I doubt it would have survived 2003. We know Saddam was keeping his WMD programs in “hot standby” waiting for inspectors to leave. If we hadn’t invade Saddam or one of his sons would almost certainly be in power. The children’s prisons would still be operating. Iraq would probably have chemical weapons again and be well on the way to developing a nuclear program. There would be one more regime funneling petrodollars to palestinean terror groups. There would not have been the “evaporative cooling” of Arab tempers, which means the average Musim would be more willing to kill for their beliefs. The Muslims who did decide to jihad would have wound up in Afghanistan, making that conflict bloodier and possibly wiping out any lives we would have saved by not invading Iraq. Khadaffi would have kept working on his nuclear program, either prompting a NATO war or preventing our later intervention. Syria would probably still occupy Lebanon.
It is always dangerous to argue the counter factual, but I belive that while we have paid dearly for the second front in the GWOT we have benefitted greatly as well.
Should have taken out Iran’s nuclear capability when we had them surrounded.
Now they will sell nukes to countries in the Middle East, South America, and elsewhere, along with missiles to mount them on.
When America decamped from Iraq, the world got much more dangerous.
Thanks, Obama, for failing to protect America–yet again–which is your primary duty.
Worst President in American history, who may cost the lives of thousands of Americans down the line.
I often have difficulty putting thought to paper as it were but here it goes. To Mike M., and everyone else. I can say without hesitation “the home front” knows why we fight. The left stream media doesn’t speak for or agree with the concept of freedom much less liberty. Most Americans are all to aware of the cost of freedom and liberty. For most Americans words alone do not and can not express our gratitude for those that volunteer to defend what we believe in. All though most of us do not personally know those that have paid the ultimate price, tears are shed none the less.
http://townhall.com/columnists/dianawest/2011/12/16/iraq_hawks_leave_open_a_door_that_should_be_slammed_shut/page/full/