De-Baathification Of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq by the United States will be viewed as failure by future generations. The United States absolutely had to take action to secure the unstable nation of Iraq, however the invasion was poorly planned and had tragic effects that would haunt the area for decades to come. After the invasion the United States made the unfortunate decisions to disband the Iraqi Army and remove all Baathist-party affiliates from their positions. The very critical successes that came from the aggressive actions of the U.S. were that Saddam Hussein was removed from power, terrorist organizations were disrupted, and Sunni soldiers and Iraqi forces worked with the United States military. It is obvious that these successes are tremendous
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to the safety of the United States and Iraq, however the results would have been far more impressive if better decisions had been made and wiser tactics had been used. Once the United States invaded Iraq they quickly made rash decisions that would create a series of issues in their immediate future. The disbanding of the the Iraqi army was the most significant mistake the U.S. made. “Disbanding the Iraqi army left thousands of trained soldiers unemployed and without cause, so they quickly became insurgents”. The better decision would have been to keep the Iraqi army employed so they could help with tasks that U.S. simply did not have the man power to handle, similar to how the “Japanese and German armies were essential after WWII.” The Iraqi soldiers would have been a critical component to securing the boarders and keeping order in the street. With the additional Iraqi soldiers, the country would have been stabilized and war would have ended quickly. If the Iraqi soldiers had been put in place to secure the boarders, and create and maintain order in the streets, there would be less insurgents, and the insurgents that remained would have been met by a military that was trained and experienced in the environment. With secure boarders Jihad fighters would have had more difficulty entering Iraq or fleeing to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Public relations would have been tremendously better if local soldiers were working alongside U.S. forces. The citizens would have had seen the foreign soldiers as less of a threat and with Iraqi assistance the U.S. could have used alternative tactics to the typical “search and destroy” tactics that caused unrest amongst locals. The U.S. made a critical error by disbanding the Iraqi army, had they made a different decision they could have saved countless lives and Iraq would be far better off today. The De-Baathification of Iraq was a decision that crippled the local infrastructure.
Saddam Hussein was a member of the Baathist Party so in order to remove his presents in the country’s infrastructure the United States removed all Baathist affiliates from their positions. While on the surface this seemed like a good idea, there were crucial details that were not taken into account. Details such as: the importance of the workers affiliated with the Baathists, and the reasons why workers associated themselves with the Baathist party. After the De-Baathification of Iraq many very important shoes were left unfilled, so the military replaced them with their own. “Now you have an American Soldier, who majored in Art History running the power grids, or someone else who is highly unqualified.” As these issues came to light the U.S. started letting these qualified Iraqi Citizens return to their jobs. New information exposed another oversight within this decision: The United States did not take into account that many Iraqi citizens joined the Baathist party out of necessity. Similar to Nazi Germany people affiliated with the Baathist party in order to get promoted and develop their career and not necessarily out of principal. While it was necessary to remove Saddam’s followers it should not have been at the cost of the country. In order to avoid this set back, the U.S. should have done more research on the party and the country’s infrastructure so that they could have made the transition smoother and prevented the removal of employees that were key components to the Iraqi
infrastructure.
It would be naïve to disregard the successes that the U.S. had in Iraq even though it is obvious now that better tactics could have been used during the invasion and infiltration. The United States successfully removed Saddam Hussein from power, disrupted terrorist organizations, and held elections. Removing Saddam Hussein from power was a great triumph because it both rid the country of a terrible leader which finally gave the country an opportunity to begin to prosper. The invasion also disrupted terrorist organizations preventing them being able to plan additional attacks, in turn saving countless lives. The true sign that the U.S. had made progress was when Citizens of Iraq were able to vote in a government election. While Iraq is still experiencing difficulties the United States has had many accomplishments that have proven to have positive effects in the country.
While the invasion of Iraq did remove Saddam from power, disrupt terrorist organizations and eventually allow an election to take place the mistakes made and lives lost will forever deem the campaign a failure. The leaders of the United States approached the invasion of Iraq with a “one track mind”. George W. Bush and his advisors thought that their plan would work and failed to account for error. Decisions such as disbanding the Iraqi army was a waste of resources and created more enemies in the process. The De-Baathification of Iraq was a similar failure that also jeopardized the local infrastructure leaving additional negative effects on country and a negative view towards the U.S. The rash decisions made after the initial invasion prevented the United States being truly successful in Iraq.
to the safety of the United States and Iraq, however the results would have been far more impressive if better decisions had been made and wiser tactics had been used. Once the United States invaded Iraq they quickly made rash decisions that would create a series of issues in their immediate future. The disbanding of the the Iraqi army was the most significant mistake the U.S. made. “Disbanding the Iraqi army left thousands of trained soldiers unemployed and without cause, so they quickly became insurgents”. The better decision would have been to keep the Iraqi army employed so they could help with tasks that U.S. simply did not have the man power to handle, similar to how the “Japanese and German armies were essential after WWII.” The Iraqi soldiers would have been a critical component to securing the boarders and keeping order in the street. With the additional Iraqi soldiers, the country would have been stabilized and war would have ended quickly. If the Iraqi soldiers had been put in place to secure the boarders, and create and maintain order in the streets, there would be less insurgents, and the insurgents that remained would have been met by a military that was trained and experienced in the environment. With secure boarders Jihad fighters would have had more difficulty entering Iraq or fleeing to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Public relations would have been tremendously better if local soldiers were working alongside U.S. forces. The citizens would have had seen the foreign soldiers as less of a threat and with Iraqi assistance the U.S. could have used alternative tactics to the typical “search and destroy” tactics that caused unrest amongst locals. The U.S. made a critical error by disbanding the Iraqi army, had they made a different decision they could have saved countless lives and Iraq would be far better off today. The De-Baathification of Iraq was a decision that crippled the local infrastructure.
Saddam Hussein was a member of the Baathist Party so in order to remove his presents in the country’s infrastructure the United States removed all Baathist affiliates from their positions. While on the surface this seemed like a good idea, there were crucial details that were not taken into account. Details such as: the importance of the workers affiliated with the Baathists, and the reasons why workers associated themselves with the Baathist party. After the De-Baathification of Iraq many very important shoes were left unfilled, so the military replaced them with their own. “Now you have an American Soldier, who majored in Art History running the power grids, or someone else who is highly unqualified.” As these issues came to light the U.S. started letting these qualified Iraqi Citizens return to their jobs. New information exposed another oversight within this decision: The United States did not take into account that many Iraqi citizens joined the Baathist party out of necessity. Similar to Nazi Germany people affiliated with the Baathist party in order to get promoted and develop their career and not necessarily out of principal. While it was necessary to remove Saddam’s followers it should not have been at the cost of the country. In order to avoid this set back, the U.S. should have done more research on the party and the country’s infrastructure so that they could have made the transition smoother and prevented the removal of employees that were key components to the Iraqi
infrastructure.
It would be naïve to disregard the successes that the U.S. had in Iraq even though it is obvious now that better tactics could have been used during the invasion and infiltration. The United States successfully removed Saddam Hussein from power, disrupted terrorist organizations, and held elections. Removing Saddam Hussein from power was a great triumph because it both rid the country of a terrible leader which finally gave the country an opportunity to begin to prosper. The invasion also disrupted terrorist organizations preventing them being able to plan additional attacks, in turn saving countless lives. The true sign that the U.S. had made progress was when Citizens of Iraq were able to vote in a government election. While Iraq is still experiencing difficulties the United States has had many accomplishments that have proven to have positive effects in the country.
While the invasion of Iraq did remove Saddam from power, disrupt terrorist organizations and eventually allow an election to take place the mistakes made and lives lost will forever deem the campaign a failure. The leaders of the United States approached the invasion of Iraq with a “one track mind”. George W. Bush and his advisors thought that their plan would work and failed to account for error. Decisions such as disbanding the Iraqi army was a waste of resources and created more enemies in the process. The De-Baathification of Iraq was a similar failure that also jeopardized the local infrastructure leaving additional negative effects on country and a negative view towards the U.S. The rash decisions made after the initial invasion prevented the United States being truly successful in Iraq.