How Bush Was 'Churchilled' in Iraq
Abstract
Rather than the cakewalk assault allegedly promised by Iraqi exiles and echoed in Pentagon circles on the "central front in the War on Terror," increasingly Iraq appears to have become a distracting detour into a debilitating sideshow war. It may have been, as Walter Russell Mead argues, that the invasion of Iraq was a good case badly made by the Bush administration. Since it took office, the Bush administration has argued that the United States should return to strategies of preemption, unilateralism, and hegemony that characterized American national security strategy in the 19th century, rather than rely on the passe Cold War doctrines of containment and deterrence. In the case of Iraq, Mead argues that Clinton's strategy of containment of Saddam was gradually poisoning and destabilizing the region, especially Saudi Arabia; that United Nations sanctions were being circumvented, creating a humanitarian crisis, and driving up oil prices; and that Saddam could re-ignite a crisis whenever he wished demanded a more aggressive response. But in May 2004, former commander of U.S. Central Command General (retd.) Anthony Zinni argued that, compared to the strategic nightmare delivered by "preemption," containment appears positively idyllic. "The first mistake that will be recorded by history," Zinni argued of the Iraq War of 2003, will be "the belief that containment as a policy doesn't work." Containment required only a floating force that averaged 23,000 personnel at any one time, paid for in large measure by regional allies. So, if containment was not working, how do we now rate the success of "preemption"? The simple truth is that the decision to topple Saddam Hussein has roiled the Middle East, forged disparate elements opposed to the U.S. presence into a coherent resistance, and handed it an asymmetric advantage on an urban battlefield where resistors can compete successfully against conventionally superior U.S. forces.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA485154
Entities
People
- Douglas Porch
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School