We Won the War, Just as It Was Planned

Even though most people today feel that they were lied to about going to war with Iraq, no one seems to understand that the war with Iraq was actually won as planned. This occurred when President Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" on May 1, 2003, from the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Today, the neo-cons on all of the right wing talk shows and TV networks keep stating that it would be admitting a loss of the war or "cutting and running"" if the troops were re-deployed today or if Iraq would be left to sort out their own problems. They also state that for anyone to disagree with the current administration or to not support the president would be unpatriotic and would not be supporting the troops.

In order to fully understand all of this, everyone should look back at the original assumptions about Saddam and Iraq, what the war goals were, then look at what was originally planned, review what was prepared for and look at what was expected as an outcome. Finally, then review the final results.

In the beginning:

It's all pretty clear that the President had ideas, starting from before his first term election, to go after Saddam Hussein. (Was this to finish up on his dad's past efforts in Iraq?) There have been many reported comments made by the president early on to his subordinates about planning ahead for possibly having to go into Iraq. In fact, one of the first ideas about the 9/11 disaster was to find out if Saddam had anything to do with it.

Assumptions Before the War:

Let's look at what was assumed and what was communicated to the world at the beginning of the conflict in Iraq. Back on March 6th, 2003, in a nationally televised press conference, President Bush stated what and why the US needed to take on Saddam and to go to Baghdad. In this presentation to the press, the president stated that the president of Iraq had previously destroyed some of Iraq's missiles, as required by the UN, after the first gulf war. However, President Bush also said that Saddam was back to building these missiles once again. He said that Saddam's operatives were hiding WMD's, with both chemical and biological agents, to avoid detection by the visiting UN inspectors. He said that Iraqi scientists had been threatened with harm if they cooperated with the UN inspectors. He stated that the scientist were required to wear hidden recording devices during the inspector's interviews. He said that if the Iraqi's were disarming, we would know it, and Saddam was not disarming. The president also said that the inspectors did not need more time. What they needed was the cooperation of the Iraq regime, which they were not receiving. Of course, there were no items of proof offered to substantiate any of these claims, just the President's word from the press conference.

The president went on to talk about the UN Security Council and then answered some questions about North Korea, but again moved the discussion back to Iraq and their danger to their neighbors and the United States. He said that Iraq had trained al Qaeda type organizations and that "the price of doing nothing exceeds the price of taking action". He referred to Saddam as a "Master of Deception"( that has no intention of disarming. There was much additional discussion about other potential 9/11 attacks and the past connection to Saddam. There were many questions from the reporters about the negative aspects of going to war. The President then referred to his faith being a big part of his life and of praying every night for the troops ((if they did go into Iraq)( and praying for the innocent Iraqi civilians. The press conference pretty much ended with a statement that said ("more time, more inspectors, more process, in our judgment, is not going to affect the peace of the world. Whether or not we go to war is Saddam's choice."(

Goals of a Possible War:

Per President Bush: ("Our mission is clear in Iraq. Should we have to go in, our mission is very clear: disarmament. And in order to disarm, it would mean regime change. I'm confident we'll be able to achieve that objective, in a way that minimizes the loss of life. No doubt there's risks in any military operation; I know that. But it's very clear what we intend to do. And our mission won't change. Our mission is precisely what I just stated. We have got a plan that will achieve that mission, should we need to send forces in."( So the key objective was stated by President Bush. Not an occupation, a "regime change"(.

War Planning:

From the day that the UN Security voted to support going into Iraq, all the war planning was only for going into Iraq and changing the ruling regime. This was because the war, according to the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was only going to last ("3 to 6 months.) In other words, once Saddam is gone, the Iraqi's would then take care of themselves. Also, this war would not cost the US more than a couple of hundred million dollars. The oil money in Iraq would pay for their war. There was never a serious mention of US occupation or nation building by the administration, prior to the war.

Preparation for War:

By reading recent publications on the invasion and occupation of Iraq such as Cobra II, by Michael Gordon and General Bernard Trainor, Fiasco, by Thomas Ricks and State of Denial, by Bob Woodward, it has become obvious that the planning for the occupation was at the bottom of the priority list. There was virtually no attention paid to preparing for the looting of the treasures of Iraq. No planning for securing the many tons of munitions that were taken by the insurgents and are still being used to kill the troops and innocent Iraqi's. The concept of training the US combat troops for a war of insurgency or of training Iraqi's as a police force was never discussed. This is because it was very clear. "The troops were not going to be there that long."

Results:

As we now know, had the generals been allowed to do just what the administration had told them to plan for, the troops would have been home by August or September of 2003. But when the US administrators of the early Iraqi government went forward with decommissioning the whole Iraqi army, when it was realized that they had no plans or training for combat troops to deal with insurgents, when they arrested vast numbers of innocent Iraqi's along with the insurgents, this was when the war took on a new look and a requirement that had not been considered by the administration. As these and many other mistakes continued to occur, it became apparent that Iraq was moving toward what is now identified as a true civil war. The military and the administration had no choice now but to try to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. And it was like putting a Band-Aid over a major hemorrhage.

Conclusion:

As I had stated at the beginning, the US did win the War with Iraq and the ruling regime was changed. This was what was planned and this is what occurred, and as it happened, it was done in record time. It is now way past time to get our troops out of harms way and to let the Iraqi's decide how their country should be organized and governed. Yes, the US has a responsibility to help and should do so with training and financial support.