Saddam Hussein in no longer terrorizing his people and threatening the region. has recovered from a deadly attack on our own shores with two swift military campaigns. policy has garnered some positive achievement. Just what have we accomplished to date in the Long War? Well, any ledger is going to identify some clear gains. As FPRI Senior Fellow Michael Radu has observed, “When you have confusion defining the enemy, you inevitably have confusion in finding ways to fight it.” In many respects, our reactions have been entirely predictable, very costly, and of great advantage to Al Qaeda. We have over-militarized our counter-terrorism strategy and repeated the mistake in Iraq.
But it does suggest that it should be fought by the Pentagon, which misleads our strategy. This says a lot about the protracted nature of the contest, but almost nothing about what we are trying to defeat or what we are fighting for. But this gives Bin Laden and Al Qaeda far too much credit in terms of their total capability. This does suggest a protracted contest with numerous fronts, and the multidimensional mobilization that is needed to achieve success. Some commentators like Professor Eliot Cohen and former CIA Director James Woolsey suggest that World War IV is appropriate. In essence, we declared war against a tactic, deliberately making our enemies evil and illegal at the same time-but also confusing ourselves about our objective or who really was our enemy. We began this conflict by calling it the GWOT. Any serious review needs to begin with the recognition that we do not understand the nature of our enemy or the nature of the war. Such reviews focus on individual trees and not the forest. The problem with many critiques of the ISG is that they appear to focus solely on Iraq, and thus reinforce Cold War habits. That’s the nature of these bipartisan groups the most extreme ideas are left on the editor’s floor, victim to the search for unanimity. There was nothing terribly original or bold in the report, the product of intense negotiations among ten prominent Americans of great intellect with long careers in public service. But, overall, it serves as an indictment of our current strategy and its implementation. Its 79 recommendations include a few clunkers that are not realistic. Their report provides a polite but devastating critique of American policy in Iraq. The ISG was a large dose of common sense. A spate of pundits have chimed in with their own set of options, with most seeking a military solution where there is none. officers with extensive experience in Iraq. The Chairman of the Joint Staff has assembled an outside team composed of U.S. But it did not offer a plan to achieve “victory” in Iraq, and thus the White House apparently has rejected the panel’s recommendations. The bipartisan Iraq Study Project (ISG) led by former Secretary of State James Baker and Congressman Lee Hamilton tried to provide a remedy. Washington is responding in classic fashion after three years of deadly conflict with little concrete progress, a plethora of policy reviews, Congressional blue-ribbon panels, and study groups are underway. Key strategic interests are being ignored, and isolated actions take us incrementally away from vital requirements. Such a fragmented perspective fails to recognize our long-term interests and warps American policy.
LONG WAR 2 RESEARCH SERIES
What should be an American grand strategy ends up a series of policy stovepipes instead of a comprehensive understanding of the problem, and an equally holistic and integrated solution. The STD limits our ability to measure what is important from what is merely expedient. Thus, we fail to see how the actions in one theater impact the conduct of the war in a larger or more systemic sense.
![long war 2 research long war 2 research](https://i.imgur.com/wGkHDZD.jpg)
Too often we look at Iraq as an isolated event, instead of one front or campaign in a larger conflict.
![long war 2 research long war 2 research](http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/XCOM-2-Screenshot-06.jpg)
![long war 2 research long war 2 research](https://g2anewsprod02storage.s3.amazonaws.com/app/uploads/2018/10/long_war_2_coilguns_05.jpg)
This deficiency is also responsible for our continued inability to diagnose today’s global struggle in a holistic manner. This deficiency lies at the root of the current challenges in Iraq, an enormous miscalculation and a gross misapplication of national power. No, it’s not the one you think-it’s a Strategic Thinking Deficiency. America is suffering from a national STD crisis.