Army Releases Study/History of the Iraq War

[Dog Guy]

The U.S. Army has published its official study/history of the Iraq war. The first link below is to the Army Times article about the study. The second link will get you to the study itself. The Wall Street Journal had a story a little while back about how much resistance there was to letting this study see the light of day. There will undoubtedly be much butt hurt, but also some great insight for those who want to learn.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-...r-future-wars/

http://publications.armywarcollege.edu/

[Peally]

That's going to be a fascinating read when I have the time (that's one big ass document). As someone never deployed or in service, the war has been one giant lifetime blur of constant combat with no understood progression or flow like I'd understand WWII.

[SeriousStudent]

Yes, 1500 pages is not something I'm going to knock out in a weekend. And it does include the supporting declassified docs.

But I will definitely read it. Thanks for posting the links.

[Gater]

Thanks for posting this.

Adding links to the WSJ articles you referenced.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-arm...ish-1540220153

https://www.wsj.com/articles/army-re...aq-11547768863

[revchuck38]

Downloaded both parts. I've read through the prologue and am into the first chapter. I'm interested mainly for two reasons - I'm a military history geek, and I was deployed there in 2003. Knowing the back story presented in the prologue would've been...helpful back then.

[ranger]

Hindsight = 20/20

OIF alumni - trivia - my National Guard BDE did the handoff with then COL Milley's 2nd BDE, 10th Mountain Div.

[JSGlock34]

Cobra II by Gordon and Trainor is an excellent critical history of the invasion. I haven't (yet) made it through their books on the insurgency. It is interesting though to juxtapose Cobra II with their well-regarded history of Operation Desert Storm, The General's War.

[Poconnor]

I’m looking forward to reading it. I was there in 09. It was obvious they were waiting to have a civil war. I had always wished we had marshal type plan for Iraq, taken Syria and then Iran - bring the region some stability. But it’s not that easy

[alohadoug]

Here's an interview one of the author's did with NPR. COL Sobchak is one of the good ones. He and I talked several times about this while he was writing it. He didn't think that current Army leadership (study was commissioned by previous leadership) was going to publish because it's less than flattering. He agrees with the Army Times headline that the only "winner" is Iran.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/22/68752...dy-of-iraq-war

[DueSpada]

11:45 PM EST "The specified URL cannot be found."