Battlefields were observed through digital links, and units and missiles were guided by Global Positioning Systems (GPS). The classic industrial age had been overturned by the new age of information-based warfare. Surprise attacks by Tomahawk missiles to kill Saddam and his high command had failed in the nights before, but this was all just the beginning of a new age of warfare. On the 20th, US forces, supported by a coalition contingent from Australia, Great Britain and Poland, advanced.
#Operation iraqi freedom free
Operation Iraqi Freedom, with its rather lofty goal of establishing a democratic, peaceful and prosperous Iraq, free from the oppression of the Ba’athist regime, was to begin. By March 20, the ultimatum for Saddam Hussein and his sons to exit Iraq had expired.
#Operation iraqi freedom full
Since the Gulf War in the early 90s, the US military presence safeguarded Kuwait against Iraqi aggression, but by March 2003 it would be the jumping off point for a full invasion. Operation Iraqi Freedom Source: World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons But this was just a first step, and also served as a training ground for preparation and mobilisation, which the US would need to defeat Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. The war in Afghanistan that began in October ended in the complete defeat of the conventional Taliban militia in a short time. The Bush Doctrine transformed the national military strategy from limited peacekeeping missions to full on war, with boots on the ground on foreign soil. Bush addressed the American nation, emphasising that the new war on terror would begin with those behind the attack – the terrorist groups of Al Qaeda – but it would not end until the those who harboured terrorists and assisted or enabled them had been defeated all over the world. The end of the Cold War had brought an illusion of lasting peace and security over the west, an illusion that was shattered as civilian planes were turned into weapons. Thomas Donnelly is a resident fellow in defense and national security studies at the American Enterprise Institute.September 11, 2001, changed the way the United States perceived its role in the world. Donnelly believes the latter is simply a euphemism for defeat. The question now is whether America will transform itself for the long, hard fight ahead or pursue a more limited victory. The global war on terror is a marathon, Donnelly argues, but the United States has a military - indeed, an entire national security bureaucracy - built for sprints. Drawing on firsthand research in postwar Iraq, Donnelly argues that military planning did not fully reflect the administration’s policy, with the Pentagon’s desire to fight a quick war ultimately undercutting its ability to fight a decisive war. Looking past the prewar debate in the UN Security Council and postwar recriminations over weapons of mass destruction, Donnelly argues that the Bush administration charted the correct strategy in Iraq but has failed to match its military means to its strategic ends.ĭonnelly traces the origins of the Iraq war over the past quarter century to the collapsing political order in the Middle East and President Bush’s fundamental belief, following the September 11 attacks, that America will not be safe until the Middle East is free. Why did the United States go to war in Iraq - and what does it seek to accomplish there? This is the question that veteran defense analyst and AEI Resident Fellow Thomas Donnelly seeks to answer in his study of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This title is currently out of print, but online booksellers sometimes have used copies available.
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