Guest MINDSETTER™ Matt Fecteau: Iraq, Bush Broke It, We Own it

Monday, June 16, 2014

Guest MINDSETTER™ Matt Fecteau

The Iraq war was a mistake. We were ill prepared for it, had little training, not enough manpower, and largely unfunded. Some estimates state the total costs of the war could be up to three trillion dollars.  I largely fault President George W. Bush for Iraq’s problems today just as much as the war itself. al Qaeda was not in Iraq before the US invaded, but our intervention changed that indefinitely.  As a US Soldier in Iraq, I can attest, we sought a temporary solution in Iraq at the expense of long-term stability.

In the spring of 2007, I witnessed the Surge in full swing.  President Bush increased the troop footprint from around 130,500 to 160,000 in a vain attempt to contain the unfolding chaos.  The US military officially adopted counter insurgent warfare as their theology. We transitioned into abandoned Iraqi malls, houses, and factories.  The US military sought to make response time quicker, intelligence collection easier, and improve security. More importantly, we could more readily negotiate and talk to anti- government insurgent sects.

The US military took a multipronged approach to contain al Qaeda in Iraq. US military compelled the competing tribal factions and Sunni insurgents to fight against al Qaeda. While Joint Special Operations Command or JSOC, removed high value targets from the battle field, the CIA quietly placed a number of Sheiks and tribal leaders on their payroll.  Backed up by the US military and intelligence from multiple agencies, an estimated 100,000 insurgents tentatively sided with US forces.

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The Surge was a success at the expense of long term stability. Its main goal was to provide the Shia Iraqi government enough time to reconcile with the Sunni insurgents.  This never took place. To the detriment of the central government’s authority, security did improve because the US military was working directly with the very tribal factions, and militia factions that were competing with the government for power. Our actions stroked and reinforced tribalism that haunt Iraq to this day.  Once the al Qaeda threat dissipated and after the Bush negotiated withdrawal in 2010, a tenuous situation became graver especially when the Shia dominated central government marginalized the Sunni.

Emergence of ISIS

The situation is Iraq was largely exasperated by the crisis in Syria.  Some al-Qaeda inspired militants relocated to Syria to wage Jihad against the Syrian President Bashir Assad.  Under the leadership of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, al Qaeda-inspired militants in Syria united with other marginalized radicals in Iraq to create Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).

ISIS used Syria as a launching pad to expand back into Iraq.  While the more secular Syrian rebels were fighting against the Syrian government, ISIS began to penetrate and consolidate control over the more volatile areas.  Taking advantage of the porous border security, these al-Qaeda inspired militants trickled into disenfranchised Sunni partitioned areas.  Soon enough, that trickle became a flood with city after city falling. 

If al Qaeda gain a significant foothold in Iraq, this threatens our national security, but President Barack Obama has made a number of good decisions. He refused to even consider overtly sending American Soldiers to Iraq and the military is collecting information and intelligence through drone surveillance. In the shadow of the Iraq war, President Obama will exercise the utmost caution.

The US government has a number of limited options.  The US can increase their intelligence sharing with Iraqi counterparts and it should also weigh whether aerial strikes are practical.  The US cannot overtly put soldiers on the ground in a combat capacity without facing massive backlash.  It may even be too dangerous to send CIA case officers to recruit informants if they aren’t there already.  The US government will largely have to depend on robust cell phone intercepts, and satellite imagery then pass this intelligence onto their Iraqi counterparts.

What Should We Do

The US should be looking to contain this situation, not becoming directly involved in it.  While some of the US training missions in Iraq have been halted, the US government can still continue to train Iraqi Soldiers in Jordan and Kuwait.  The US might have to prod the elite northern Iraqi minority Kurds’ Peshmerga (army) to take back more cities from al Qaeda. Sadly, these options may not be good enough to save the entirety of Iraq.

I was just as ambivalent about the Iraq war as I am today about the situation in Iraq.  I opposed the Iraq war, but unfortunately, after witnessing all the chaos and destruction, felt something needed to be done.  I still believe the Iraq war was a mistake, but as Secretary of State Colin Powell once said, “You break it, you own it.”

I do not think we should abandon Iraq to these al Qaeda inspired militants.  We should do everything reasonable to ensure al Qaeda are contained, but this is their country and our troops have suffered enough. We owe it to the people of Iraq to do something, but we owe it more to our own soldiers not to intervene.

Matt Fecteau ([email protected]) is a Democratic candidate for Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District. He is a former White House national security intern, and captain in the Army Reserves with two tours to Iraq. His website can be found here: MattforRI.com. Twitter: @MatthewFecteau All Opinions are his own.

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