Ongoing Combat--Case Study: Iraq

Posted Monday, October 26, 2009, at 2:39 PM

The next Defense Intelligence Agency category, threats from non-states, includes ongoing combat operations. The most significant, Iraq, stands as the preeminent example of what can be wrong with our use of military power.

As presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry rightly said, it is the wrong war. Sen. Russ Feingold added in a Dec. 31, 2006, speech prepared for delivery on the Senate floor, "...strengthening our national security...starts by redeploying U.S. forces from Iraq and refocusing our attention on the global terrorist threats that face us..."

Operation Iraqi Freedom started out as a war between nations: the United States and a couple of allies, and Iraq. The original, if barely defensible, mission was to eliminate WMD but it got us into a civil war the suppression of which our delusional leaders claimed would make the world a safer place. The threats were not those posed by the Iraqi combatants--they would not be killing us if we were not there--the real threats are to our Constitutional principles, our obligations as citizens of the world, our humanitarian and religious beliefs, our future as a moral force, and our economy.

In Iraq, there is no answer to how one million dead civilians, 4,250 dead and 31,000 wounded American troops, and at least $2 trillion in expense will make us more secure--and there never really was.

In Iraq we did not take into account three principals that that should be applied to all future combat operations. We did not identify and clearly define our mission; we did not provide a force commensurate with the mission; and we had no plan for the mission's end--Jim Frost.

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Berkley Bedell--Retirement from the U.S. Congress in 1987, neither dulled my interest in the well-being of the people of the United States nor my worries about our governance. I began work in 2006 on a book outlining the country's problems and offering solutions. Jim Frost--I share Berkley's concerns and in 2007 began the job of researching, editing and assisting with writing his book. By early 2009, after finally weathering George W. Bush and recognizing how much the past eight wasted years have set the world back, our focus changed. We had seen no meaningful progress in the efforts to stem the threat of nuclear weapons, reverse global warming, preserve natural resources, reduce military spending, fight disease and hunger, improve health care, deal with the increasing gulf between rich people and poor people, establish a workable economic system, or clean up the political process. For us, these three things became self-evident: First, the problems are global; the U.S. cannot by itself control or solve them. Second, the perfect storm of worldwide catastrophe is already upon us; what must be said cannot wait. Third, in seeking solutions, the problems must be put before as many people as possible as quickly as possible. This blog is the result. There will be much more. We invite you to participate.

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