A Military History of the Iraq War Part 2: Insurgency

The conventional phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom was one of the most brilliant military campaigns in modern military history. In just three weeks, and despite being outnumbered by nearly 5 to 1, the American led coalition sliced the Iraqi military’s defences and pierced the beating heart of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime, capturing Baghdad and precipitating a complete military collapse. It was a triumphant display of American technological, qualitative and doctrinal superiority. Saddam had fallen, and in his wake the Coalition had a golden opportunity to quickly transition Iraq to a new, less dangerous and, hopefully, more enlightened government. But despite the early positive signs, beneath the surface Iraq was beginning to tear itself to pieces. A highly heterogeneous nation with a deep socio-cultural and religious divide, with the oppressive Baathist regime now gone and the country descending into chaos, simply to survive the Iraqi people reverted to long dormant ethnic and sectarian identities. This process led to the emergence of numerous Iraqi factions that began to struggle for power in what had, thanks to the coalition, now become a stateless theatre of war. This decent into insurgency and civil war was fueled by a number of manifestly poor decisions made by coalition political and military leadership, specifically the Coalition Provisional Authority’s radical de-Baathification plan and its disbanding of the Iraqi military, two actions that effectively dissolved the Iraqi state as a whole. By the end of 2003, it was clear that despite the coalition's brilliant operational victory in March and April, at the strategic level they were now losing this war. 0:00 A Century of Jihad 20:39 "We're Here; Now What?" 43:06 Mission Accomplished: How to Found an Insurgency 1:21:23 Insurgency and Iraq's Human and Physical Terrain 1:46:35 The Killing of Uday and Qusay Hussein 1:53:41 The Sunni Arabs: Disenfranchised and Ready for War 2:26:30 Factions Vying for Power: The Shia, Kurds and Iranians 2:38:40 The Insurgency Emerges 3:05:37 Abu Gharib and the Ramadan Offensive 3:27:41 Capturing Saddam: Operation Red Dawn 3:38:01 Understanding Strategic Failure