The Past and Future of Iraq

Abstract

Since the 1950s, the Marine Corps has played an increasing role in the national strategy of preserving peace as part of nation-building operations. While these operations have ranged from expeditionary forces conducting security for local U.S. embassies to peace making and peace keeping operations, the Marine Corps currently faces its largest deployment as peace makers/peace keepers since the American presence in 1980s Beirut, Lebanon. In that operation, 241 Marines died in a terrorist bombing of the Marine Amphibious Unit headquarters due to a failure to understand the culture in which they were operating. While not completely analogous, Lebanon provides many useful lessons for today's Marines in Iraq. Therefore, to deal with the Iraqi insurgency, the USMC must understand Iraqi cultural influences, recognize local power bases, and maintain a balanced position of strength, compassion, and equality.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 07, 2005
Accession Number
ADA504460

Entities

People

  • J. R. Raithel

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Community Relations
  • Deployment
  • Foreign Policy
  • Information Operations
  • Insurgency
  • Leadership
  • Marine Corps
  • Middle East
  • Naval Warfare
  • New York
  • Security
  • Societies
  • Stability Operations
  • Terrorists
  • Training
  • United States
  • Universities

Readers

  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.