The T he Middle Middle East East
Baghdad fell in April. Saddam Hussein went into hiding and would not be captured until December 2003. But despite searching everywhere, coalition forces found no WMD in Iraq. The intelligence reports were from dubious sources, doctored, or just plain wrong. The failure to find these weapons set off an intense political debate in the United States and Europe. However, on 2 May 2003, President Bush announced in a nationally televised address that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”
US Attempts to Stabilize Iraq Since the 2003 Invasion It turned out to be not quite that easy. The military victory came swiftly. The toppling of the Baghdad regime ended a dozen years of Iraqi defiance of the United Nations. But it was soon clear that winning the war would prove much easier than winning the peace. The Coalition Provisional Authority provided a transitional government for Iraq until 28 June 2004. At that point it disbanded in favor of the Iraqi Interim Government. That government ruled until elections took place 30 January 2005.
The Activities of Insurgents and al-Qaeda After the War When President Bush spoke on 2 May 2003, he stood before a banner reading “Mission Accomplished.” He would later call this one of his mistakes in office. Major combat was over. But the insurgency was just beginning. In May 2003 the United Nations lifted sanctions against Iraq and backed the US-led administration there. The United States abolished the Baath Party and its institutions. By July the commander of US forces acknowledged that his troops faced low-level guerrilla warfare. LESSON 3
75162_C1L3_p072-091_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 87
■
The Persian Gulf Wars
87
11/9/09 12:42 PM
Car bombs and roadside bombs—known in military jargon as improvised explosive devices (IEDs)—were frequent. So were suicide bombings, sometimes carried out by women. Casualties from such attacks often numbered in the dozens and sometimes exceeded 100. One of the controversies over the war’s launch was whether Saddam Hussein had supported al-Qaeda, the group behind the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Although he hadn’t, polls showed that many Americans believed he had. By 2004 Americans were hearing about a mysterious but deadly new group known as “al-Qaeda in Iraq.” Its origins were unclear. Foreigners led it, but its members were mostly Sunni Iraqis who felt they were losing the privileged position they held under Hussein. Many bombings and other attacks were blamed on the group. A key strike during this period was the bombing of the historic Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra on 22 February 2006 by insurgents. This triggered a wave of unprecedented violence in Iraq between Shiites and Sunnis.
88
CHAPTER 1 The Middle East
75162_C1L3_p072-091_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 88
11/9/09 12:42 PM
The T he Middle Middle East East
The “Surge” and Current Iraqi Politics From the beginning of the Iraq war, people disagreed over how many US troops would be needed to fight it. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld believed in smaller, lighter, more “nimble” forces. He thought only 135,000 troops were necessary. Others, such as General Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, called for a larger American force. Rumsfeld prevailed, though. US forces went into Iraq in the smaller numbers he advocated. In late 2006 Rumsfeld resigned amid escalating violence in Iraq. Robert Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, took his place, and in early 2007 the United States implemented a new approach in Iraq referred to as a troop “surge.” This meant sending in 30,000 more troops for a time to help stabilize Iraq. The new plan also called for troops to be out among the people, and not barricaded in their bases. It also called for working with Sunni tribal leaders and militias to isolate al Qaeda in Iraq. The terrorist group’s violence and extreme religious views had lost it support among these groups. By September 2007 General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, told Congress that the surge was working. Sectarian violence was still at “troubling levels,” he said, and that achieving US goals would be neither quick nor easy. But violence was coming down, and Iraqi forces were able to assume responsibility for their own security. The number of American casualties fell dramatically. By 2008 the first US troop drawdowns had begun. By the time the fall election campaign was in high gear in the United States, the war in Iraq had faded as an issue for American voters.
LESSON 3
75162_C1L3_p072-091_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 89
■
The Persian Gulf Wars
89
11/9/09 12:42 PM
On 31 January 2009 Iraqis went to the polls for provincial elections. One of the most noticeable results was how smoothly the voting went. There was relatively little violence, and a high level of participation by Sunnis, who had boycotted the last provincial elections in 2005. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s party came out ahead. This seemed to signal voters’ approval of the reduced violence and his party’s secular, rather than religious, approach to governing. While the situation in Iraq continued to improve, and new US President Barack Obama hoped to withdraw American forces as soon as practical, it appeared likely that challenges would continue in Iraq for some time to come.
90
CHAPTER 1 The Middle East
75162_C1L3_p072-091_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 90
11/9/09 12:42 PM
