Riding the Hydra: How the Army Enterprise Went to War 2001-2007

Abstract

The history of the U.S. Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom is replete with tactical and operational studies, and the shifts in strategy are well documented. The Chief of Staff of the Armys (CSA) official study, The U.S. Army in the Iraq War, provides an excellent analysis of the operational level of war. Riding the Hydra, however, examines the institutional Army, specifically the Army staff, and its efforts to prepare theArmy for war.1 When President George W. Bush made the decision to launch the war in Iraq, the Army faced a two-front war for the first time since World War II. Though the Army in 2002 was much better trained, equipped, and ready than its predecessor sixty years before, it still showed the effects of declining budgets and lack of strategic focus. The modern, professional Army requires bureaucratic processes in order to coordinate a complex and highly sophisticated system. The defense budgets have declined over the years, but they remain as much as 14 percent of the total federal budget. Managing those funds properly and legally requires a system of firm controls.2 Yet those administrative processes, while necessary for proper stewardship of Army resources, can also stifle innovation and development of new capabilities whilehaving a stultifying effect on equipping forces. Those procedures were optimized for a Cold War Army, not a modern expeditionary Army with a rapid deployment mission. With the urgent need to prepare for war in Iraq, the Army's senior leadership began to energize the Army enterprise from the top down, while reacting to requirements from the bottom up. Senior leaders created the Army Strategic Planning Board (ASPB) to react to urgent requirements from commanders preparing to deploy, but it grew into a more proactive role as its processes matured.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 22, 2019
Accession Number
AD1124719

Entities

People

  • Conrad C. Crane
  • Michael E. Lynch
  • Shane P. Reilly

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Body Armor
  • Combat Operations
  • Congress
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Deployment
  • Employment
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Homeland Security
  • Iraqi-War
  • Joint Military Activities
  • Logistics
  • Materials Science
  • Military History
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Recreation
  • Storage
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.