Vietnam Teaches Us that Iraq Needs More than U.S. Combat Advisers by David Johnson, War on the Rocks
The campaign against the Islamic State seems stalled, with no meaningful progress in sight. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, in an interview with Stars and Stripes on the eve of his retirement from the Army, was characteristically blunt, noting that the war is “kind of a stalemate.” He also stated that the United States “could defeat the Islamic State with its own ground forces,” but that such an approach “is not the long-term solution to the issues in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
As I have written at War on the Rocks and elsewhere, I agree with Odierno that U.S. ground forces can defeat the Islamic State. However, I disagree his contention that “the U.S. cannot solve this problem for the region.” I think that the Islamic State must be defeated as a necessary precondition before Iraqis and others in the region can be expected to provide for their own internal security in the future. Unfortunately, the resilience of the Islamic State thus far — as well as its continued reign of terror — has shown that those in the region cannot defeat it…
Comments
I expected Odierno to put his own house in order. The CSA cannot control what politicians do, but he is absolutely responsible for making certain that we have an army that is ready to fight. Odierno presided over the army's transformation from an exhausted force to a national disgrace, making certain at every turn to shift blame to the politicians.
As to America's ability to demolish DAESH and why it shouldn't, I've heard this song before. "We, YOUR United States Army, stand ready to fight and win anywhere in the world. That's why Congress should give us whatever money we ask for. However, let me point out the reasons you shouldn't ask us to fight. We have to look at the big picture and the larger ramifications..." The U.S. army is an excuse factory. This army couldn't fight its way out of a wet paper bag and its generals know it. If any fighting needs to be done, we should send the Marines.
How do you suggest that GEN Odierno should have acted? Any frequent readers know that I'm openly critical of a number of prominent American flag and general officers. GEN Odierno is one of the few who grew on me the more I opportunities I had to observe him. GEN Odierno was very clear throughout his tenure as CSA that sequestration and other budget constraints were poised to severely hamstring the Army and the Joint Force. What did you expect him to do, eschew his administrative requirements, ignore the sacrosanct concepts of the chain of command and civilian oversight of the military, and personally organize a U.S. Army invasion force with him in the van with an M2 in his hand and a gleam in his eye? Beyond that, is there any doubt in your mind that GEN Odierno has provided at least somewhat competent advice to his civilian leaders, up to and including President Obama, and that those civilian leaders have been selective in their adherence to that counsel?
With respect to what he said about Afghanistan and Iraq, is there really any question that GEN Odierno is right? America could demolish DAESH, the Taliban, or both, and the ensuing power vacuum would simply be filled with some other nefarious group, probably of similar ideology, and potentially more egregious than any of those groups. There is no purely military solution to the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria, the latter two of which are providing the power vacuum that Daesh is currently filling. The only role that the military (American or otherwise) can play in any of those conflicts is to produce the conditions for a viable political solution, and that is certainly what GEN Odierno was referring to.
When the French commander who lost Dienbienphu to the Vietminh retired, some of his officers chipped in and got him a gift. It was a beautiful lacquered, velvet-lined box containing a revolver and one bullet. The obvious suggestion was that he should load the bullet into the revolver and do the honorable thing. If anyone wants to send Gen. Odierno such a gift, count me in for a donation. This guy behaved like a short-timer, counting the days until his Wall Street cash-in while the army fell apart.