And no I’m not talking about the looting. The looting was going to happen to a certain extent and while it is somewhat ugly, well, welcome to the Hobbesian world we live in. There is a reason we have government and the streets of Baghdad are a good example of what happens when civil authority breaks down. I have no idea if we will restore order in the next few days, but assuming we do, it really isn’t a big deal. If it lasts for a couple weeks, someone should be accountable.
What is a big deal is the war plan. Sure it worked out and we can credit the armed forces for performing flawlessly. The thing is, we also need to credit Iraqi strategery. What stopped the dams and bridges from being blown? Several things:
1) Good luck on our part
2) Faster penetration than anyone expected
3) Saddam’s incompetence
Pretty much, our easy success in both Gulf Wars can be summed up by Saddam’s incompetence. In both cases we would have prevailed and prevailed, in relative terms, easily. There are several aspects of this plan that seem to be riskier to our forces than necesary. I’m guessing part of this is a hope that Saddam would perform as poorly as he did in Iran and the first Gulf War and part Rumsfeld wanting to show off his ideas. Either way, hope isn’t a way to run a military campaign. The fortunate aspect of this is the military is obsessive about reviewing its efforts and even if reports are squelched, any weakness in the plan as analyzed will eventually be public.