My Iraq War paper

Iraq A Botched Victory

The ongoing insurgency in Iraq and the current troubles the US is experiencing in that region of the world were caused by the US led Coalitions poor handling of the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq which occurred in 2003 after the Saddam family regime imploded and went into hiding in the due to the total defeat of Iraq�s conventional armed forces in the fighting with mainly US and UK troops. Saddam who was usually used to embarking on outings in limousines with heavily armed and trained body guards in tow, Was now on that night finding himself in a beaten up old car which was driven by one of his most loyal bodyguards was now finding himself fleeing Baghdad and the rapidly advancing American forces which were sweeping Iraq like a tidal wave. Saddam it could be said definitely knew that has days in power were coming to an end for the time being. However Saddam Hussein had one militarily dangerous dagger he had yet to play and that dagger was guerilla warfare which for most modern military powers had been a bane. Saddam had become interested in guerilla warfare at the end of the first Gulf War when his nation which had been easily the most powerful in the Middle East and recently at the time in Saddam Hussein�s view triumphed over the clerics in Iran at the end of a bloody eight year war which had left at least two hundred thousand Iraqis dead and many more wounded and maimed as casualties of war. The nation of Iraq before the First Gulf War also had in its procession the World�s fourth largest military. In addition Iraq was well off economically for a third world nation with its oil wealth and foreign investment bolstering its economy during the tenuous years of the Iran-Iraq war. However after Iraq�s crippling defeat after his failed invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saddam figured that if he were to provoke international outrage and reaction on a scale of what he did during the First Gulf War, So Saddam figured his nation could very well be invaded by the US and his regime would almost certainly topple and his forces almost certainly crumble under US might and firepower on the conventual battlefield. So Saddam Hussein along with his general�s in the immediate aftermath of the First Gulf War began planning not to wage war conventaly should the United States ever invade Iraqi but and unconvental war based on insurgency. Through out the 1990s and all the way up to the United States led invasion of Iraq in 2003 Saddam�s regime spent a lot of time and money on expanding and improving on his regimes milta the Fedyeen and preparing them for a potential guerrilla war against the World�s only superpower. The Fedeyeen and various other paramilitary organizions within Iraq prepared for this by doing such things like reading the book and watching the film version of Blackhawk Down and putting emphasis on ambush tactics and improvising weapons and explosives and handing out Ak-47s en masse to regime loyalists. In addition a fact that was largely ignored by the Western media in the very days leading up to invasion hundreds of foreign Jihadists and others through out the Middle East who wished to do harm to the United States were entering Iraq and preparing with the blessings of the Saddam regime to wage and insurgency.                        

The Beginning of a Botched Victory

The Second Gulf War� as it is often called began in the early morning hours of March 20, 2003 after long international negotiations with such international organizations such as the UN and strong opposing influences from such nations like France which opposed the invasion due to many business contracts and other dealings with the Baath party regime. These negotiations over the case to go to war failed to persuade these countries and organizations about the dangers of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. After these negotiations failed, the U.S. along with other allies such as the U.K. opted to give Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, and his henchman a deadline to leave the country. As many would expect, Saddam refused to give up his power and decided to stay and fight. Hours after the deadline passed, the first U.S. and U.K. bombs and missiles started to fall on Baghdad and other Iraqi cites, while ground troops pushed up through Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

    Baghdad fell quickly, and along with it the entire Iraqi apparatus. Saddam and his henchman realized this and moved as quickly as they could to prevent money, weapons, and other vital necessities from falling into U.S. hands, so they could wage a planned insurgency in hopes of climbing back to power. The current problems we are now facing in Iraq in terms of the insurgency where planned years in advance prior to the U.S. invasion. To make matters worse for the U.S.,  thousands of jihadist�s and other extremists from places like Syria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya, Yemen and Iran flooded into Iraq via the country�s chaotic and porous borders were patrols of troops were often stretched and often useless in preventing these foreign fighters from infiltrating Iraq.