Who do you think is responsible for our failure in Iraq?

While I feel that the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 played a pivotal role with the unrest in the region the root cause of the overall failure in the area is due to a conflicted foreign policy that struggles to strike a balance between our nations energy concerns and human rights issues. However the recent events with the rise of ISIS is a direct failure in establishing a A status of forces agreement (SOFA) in Iraq. This systemic failure can be viewed as either incompetence or a crafty dogs of war run by big business. Until we develop a strategy to defeat an ideology and not a standing force we will always be chasing our tails in the sand.

Iraq was lost before we initiated operations. D. Rumsfeld looked his officers in the eye and said, "I'll fire the next man who says that we need a strategy for post-invasion Iraq." That is a direct quote. No vision allowed. As the insurgency grew, he said, "We are fighting 1500 to 2000 dead-enders." Clueless.

We destroyed all Iraqi civil and governmental institutions...stupid.

We dropped in and tried to build a top-down central government: a bureaucracy and an Army...but a bureaucracy and an army don't make a people a nation. That has to come first, a nation, then a government.

Our political civilians wrote the most outrageously restrictive rules of engagement...they wanted a war, but they didn't want anybody to get hurt.

Our political civilians stuck with the lines drawn by the Brits in the early 1900s, when clearly the Iraqi PEOPLE don't fit inside those lines...better to lose than admit that Winston Churchill might have been wrong...

Our political and diplomatic civilians acted as if Iran didn't exist and therefore could take no action in Iraq...they were wrong. Iran has been an actor there since the beginning...what did they think was going to happen? The answer is, they didn't think.

Iraqis suck at conventional soldiering and conventional governing...so they are collapsing before the last puff of prop blast from the last US C130 has cleared the air...this was predictable by anyone who had been there...

Look at what is happening there now. Let me ask you, "What kind of a---h--le would it take to keep all those factions and personalities in line?"...an a--hole like Saddam Hussein, is the answer. How's old Saddam lookin now that ISIS is BURYING FAMILIES ALIVE??? Not too bad, huh? Wishing for the good old days when the only danger was getting tortured by Uday and Kusay...two dudes doin' the torture instead of thousands.

Just my .02 cents

Hindsight is always 20/20, asking who is to blame is a difficult question.

I am sure that there is enough blame to go around in varying degrees.

We did train and mentor the Iraqi security forces.

I did two tours on Military Transition Teams (MITTs) in Iraq.

- 2004-2005 Border Patrol (Syrian border)

- 2008-2009 National Police (Mosul)

I am only mentioning that to put my following comment in context.

I did not see a will to fight in the majority of the individuals that constituted the Iraqi security forces.

You can train and mentor all you want, but if a national pride to fight for your nation is not there you cannot win.

It is disappointing to see what is happening in Iraq, I personally have a difficult time watching the news.

I had several Yezidi interpreters for both my tours, the most distressing scene to me is seeing the plight they are currently enduring.

The Iraqi government, and to an extent, the Iraqi people for not standing up and fighting for themselves.

The problem started before we ever got there. They were fighting with each other long before we got there and they will continue to fight with each other long after we are gone. ISIL is a problem, but we bred that problem by letting Syria do what every they wanted to do and worrying about Iraq and Afghanistan. It is the whole ME that is a problem, but nobody wanted to address that for fear of nuclear war.

Now besides all that you now have a POTUS is a do nothing on foreign policy. His belief is that you should stand back and let things play out and not get involved too much. It was a great theory, but when it comes to Putin or the ME you have to do something or they will try to walk all over you. There is a difference in not providing foreign aid and not doing anything at all. I prefer to not give out foreign aid, but still knock someone in the dirt if need be.

The other problem arises with the way we fight a war. We were doing great when we could go in and kill them all. Now you have to worry about politics and blah blah blah. Congress really did a number on crap. As a result I could argue that more people got killed because of the ROEs.

Look at the mission: Secure the people/ensure the safety of the American population? those were easy, the HARD part was the democratic self governing Iraq. You can't hand someone freedom, they will throw it away. They will not appreciate it if they did not fight for it, and will not fight to keep it. We installed a government they did not choose for themselves. They participated in a democratic election because WE were occupying and telling them to.

They didn't want America to pull out for two reasons. 1: the second we left someone else would be in power who would not be free from corruption, and 2: every day America was there we were pouring money into their economy.

Our failure in Iraq was taking on a mission that could not be accomplished.
Finding WHO to blame is pointless and will accomplish nothing, LEARNING from that mistake WILL be productive. Bottom line, they will not be independent until they are inspired as a people to take it for themselves. We cannot give it to them.

I think you are looking at it wrong. We didn't fail.We should have never stuck our nose in a war that has been on going for generations.War has no winners.I would say the Iraqi people and Govt. is who the blame falls with.

I highly doubt that with as many factors as were influencing the initial days following the fall of Saddams government that anything we could have done would have mitigated any of the follow on incidences which led to OIF. Especially considering that the last time that the US was involved in a Occupation following the destruction of the established government was in Japan and Germany following WW2. In the case of Germany it was a part of a five power deal and in the case of Japan culturally at the time they accepted rulership as part of their cultural identity. Unless I am badly mistaken even during the Cold War West Germany was largely self ruling. Could OIF gone better Yes but with a complete and total power vaccum caused by the fall of a totalitarian government I don't think realistically that anything could've happened differently.

Even with all the mismanagement and things like Abu Ghraib in my opinion those were more the signs of inexperience then outright malfeasance or a lack of caring. More than once I have compared Iraq as a whole to 1920s Chicago, and in fact the "Al-Anbar Awakening" really didn't gain any traction until the assassination of Sheik Sattar. However once that happened AQI lost almost complete control of Al Anbar and since Al Anbar was the linchpin of the resistance...

Sir I can only say that if what took place during the war needs a blame, let's look at where it all began.
If you have 2 hours of your time, please look at this, this is my home town and I lived this personally as it took place.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCRL4felADM

First off it is not our 'Failure'. It's the failure of the Iraqi government, people, and their institutions. We set them up, we spent more money building their infra-structure, rebuilding/training their police and military, and improving their country... more than our own.

GWB hasn't been in office for a while now so, I wish everyone would stop blaming him for this mess. He didn't attack us on 911. He didn't violate UN resolutions. I will agree that not everything was done right (I have stated that in other posts)... but the same terrorist group attacked us under Bill Clinton but no one blames him for his lack of response. Obama, right or wrong did what he thought was right (I am not an Obama supporter). But it was time to leave and let Iraq take care of itself.

How long to do you hold someone's hand and it is either sink or swim especially if your going to sink with them? America can't afford to waste money in all these piss-ant countries that hate us anyway... We have some real friends that we ignore. It is time to gather our real frineds and fix our own problems... then and only then should we waste time and money and like Iraq.

I can hear people now "evil prevails when good men do nothing"... Well Iraq and the rest of the world are full of good men...