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Since we have so many people on here from different branches and specialties, I am curious to learn what everyone has to say about any lessons learned from OIF. Consider your response and make sure you are not revealing anything that is classified.
Also, what lessons learned did we get from previous military campaigns that were forgotten or overlooked during OIF. Did we make the same mistakes as before? Did our successes come from previous lessons learned?
Also, what lessons learned did we get from previous military campaigns that were forgotten or overlooked during OIF. Did we make the same mistakes as before? Did our successes come from previous lessons learned?
Lessons Learned
Iraq
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 8
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The biggest lesson learned for me was we should know all the facts about what is going on before we just jump into action. There was no real purpose to have been there.
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I think one of the most important lessons RE-Learned was to employ defeated enemy combatants and reintegrate them into the post-conflict society. From my understanding most of the Iraqi Army was disarmed and sent home, a vanquished foe. Then when things got bad and they had no money and no livelihood, they became insurgents, angry at the US for the situation in which they now found themselves.
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CW2 Jonathan Kantor
That's certainly true... but what can we do? Execute everyone in the defeated military? I don't know of a reasonable option where we could have kept that from happening.
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SGT James Elphick
Obviously executing them all is not an option. Keeping them on in some capacity with the army should work. Disarm them but don't send them off without a paycheck. In Germany after WWII many previous hostile combatants were immediately put back to work in a variety of capacities. I read somewhere shortly after the beginning of the insurgency that this was one of our biggest failures but to me it was something we already knew
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LTC Paul Labrador
We did a poor job of "Marshall Planning" Iraq becuase we wanted to do it on the cheap. We had grossly misjudged the state of the Iraqi infrastructure and it's abiltiy to maintian order and continuation of services to the people. In 2003, aside from the Sunni regime holdouts (who were pissed at us for very obvious reasons), a large part of the country was either happy that we were there and removed Saddam, or at the very least were ambivilant to our presence and were taking a "wait and see" stance. Where it turned was when we failed to live up to the expectations of the Iraq people in setting things to right. We failed to maintain order, we failed to provide needed social services, the rebuilding was done on an ad hoc scale. The frustration borne out of those failures, IMHO, turned many Iraqis against us. In essence we squandered a lot of good will in the beginning and it bit us in the ass in the end.
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President OBummer - "Duh?!"
President Bush - "Axis of Evil for $400, Alex."
President Bush - "Axis of Evil for $400, Alex."
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