The Iraq War wasn't that long ago. Don't twist the record for current political biases.
I disagree strongly with this comparison:
Some around Putin appear to have been as delusional about a quick, easy victory as U.S. secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld was in 2003 when he imagined that U.S. forces would be greeted as "liberators" in Iraq and American troops would be home for Thanksgiving.
American troops absolutely were greeted as liberators by the brutalized Shias. And the besieged Kurds were happy to have America (and others, most notably the British) topple Saddam.
The conventional war was astoundingly successful--short and with few Coalition casualties. I expected that although I did not expect our troops to be home by Thanksgiving. I expected American troops to be there in strength for years.
What I didn't know was how strong the minority Sunni Arabs would resist and what the pro-Iran Shias would do after their happiness at Saddam's defeat wore off. Remember, even opponents of invading said the better alternative was overthrowing Saddam. So they believed Saddam had few fans inside Iraq.
The author also knows better than to repeat the "mission accomplished" statement about the end of major combat operations without understanding--or explaining--that this meant the fight against Iraq's organized military was over. Which was true. I expect better of him.
Mind you, I was unhappy with Rumsfeld's defense priorities that assumed air power made ground troops just the guys who go in to collect the win that precision firepower would achieve. If the hard but successful fight to topple Saddam didn't end that notion, the counter-insurgency certainly did. So I'm not a shrieking fanboy for Rumsfeld. But let's be fair, here.
I will add that the insurgencies were defeated in a relatively short time with relatively
few Coalition casualties, compared to other counter-insurgencies. As it turned out, even the Sunni Arabs who backed armed resistance largely decided after just over three years of insurgency to side with America (the Awakening).
The scale of incorrect Russian assumptions far exceeds what America expected. And America did win the war. Or is that to be forgotten, too?
NOTE: War updates continue on this post.
