2Slick has one great piece today about his thoughts on how the war was planned out.
Heres a good question I get from time to time- “What went wrong with the plan for Iraq?”
It’s a fair question, but I do think that people today lack a true understanding of the nature of war. There seems to be very little historical perspective these days. Everybody wants a “quick and dirty” smackdown followed by immediate withdrawal. “War is fine as long as nobody gets hurt.” It just doesn’t work like that- in fact, it’s never worked like that. As a people, I think we Americans have become a little bit spoiled in that sense. Having said that, I do think there were some “miscalculations” made in this war- here’s my take on it…
I agree with this statement 100%. It seems that some people believe war can be fought in a humane way. It can’t, plain and simple. War is about defeating your enemy via many differnt means but almost always with your military. You know what that means? Either your enemy surrenders or you kill your enemy.
As I mentioned, the elites were convinced that Iraqis would stand up for “love of country” and unite against evil. They were wrong. Sure, there were some brave souls who did exactly what was expected- but for the most part, “Joe Iraqi” wanted food for his family and he’d prefer not to be killed. That was pretty much it. He’d grown used to the idea that if he keeps his mouth shut and does nothing, then he’s got a better chance of living. The insurgents reinforce this idea several times every day (just watch the news).
In retrospect, I’d say it’s pretty silly to think that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis would have had this great “love of country,” since the overwhelming majority were brutally oppressed by this country’s government for the better part of 30 years. Nobody’s going to love such a country. We would have done well to understand that these Iraqis needed a whole new country to love- and it takes a great deal of time to build a whole new country. But I won’t fault those who didn’t realize this initially- I sure didn’t see it. I read books and all that- and I believed Chalabi and the gang. Hindsight is indeed 20/20
It’s always amazed me when people armchair quarterback. It’s like the WMD thing, every freakin country on the planet believed they had WMD but once it was determined they didn’t have any then they all came out of the woodwork spouting “you should of known”
Many Iraqis are forced to make a choice for which they are ill-informed to make- side with the Coalition/IIG, and the insurgents might kill me- side with the insurgency, and the Americans might kill me. Unfortunately, many Iraqis believe that their odds are better if they side with the insurgency. Watch Al Jazeera or (even worse) read any news article from the Associated Press, and you’ll understand why they believe this. It’s not just the propaganda coming from radical clerics and former Saddamites- it’s propaganda (under the pretense of “news”) that comes to them from our very own United States of America. Furthermore, Americans won’t threaten a man’s family if he doesn’t join the Iraqi National Guard or agree to “sell out” a terrorist financier. Insurgent leaders, however, will execute a man’s entire family just for making a financial transaction with Americans. This is pure intimidation, and it works better than we’d like to think.
So so true. I see it daily on the streets I patrol in Los Angeles. There are so many good people in the ghetto areas but they are continually intimidated by the few scumsuckers. Then to top it off all of the MSM and the Al Terrorist news keep banging into the head of the average Iraqi that we are losing and will only get them killed.
What the Iraqis need right now are courageous leaders to step up and lead these people out of this “beaten-down in the dark ages” mentality. These leaders exist in Iraq- they step up every day at great peril to their own lives. Assassinations are rampant. It’s bloody and it’s ugly. Sort of like a revolution. This is what’s happening. Good people like Ali and the guys at Iraq the Model are shining examples of why there is indeed hope.
There is much much more in his piece and I encourage you to read it all.
See author page