If America had it to to over again, how could the Iraq War be won?

Question

Suppose that you were in charge. And you were getting ready to go to invade Iraq a few years ago. Forget the intelligence blunder/scandal. Let's just say that you were going to invade regardless.

How could things have been handled differently? How could we have won?

Send 600,000 troops? Spend ten times the money? Do more preparation on the ground prior to military action?

What would you have done differently? How could we have won this war if we had it to do all over again?

Answer 1

If America had the chance to do it all over again, it wouldn't happen.

Answer 2

Perhaps the better way to have started the war in Iraq would've been to send in SF. Establish contact w/Kurds. Then build a network/resistance to Saddam. Once a sizable network has been established, start the Shock and Awe. That way after kicking out Saddam - you have your own resistance set up and ready to move in. You've established a trustworthy network to help root out outside interference. Pretty much what was done if Afghanistan, except that the Northern Alliance was already set up.
The problem with the SF first approach in Iraq would be the possibility of one them being discovered. Even if that didn't happen it would take years to establish the network. Maybe
8 yrs. That would mean that by the time a good network has been establish, the next admin may decide that it's not worth taking action against Saddam. The time spent would've been good experience for the SF, but if the network was discovered, well you know what Saddam would've done.

Answer 3

Umm, technically the war was won. Saddam and his regime are gone. It's been establishing a gov't and nation building that hasn't worked, in Baggdahd (the north and south are doing fairly well, very well in some areas).

If it was done all over again, I'd say do it from the air after we had plans in place with people on the ground to immediately establish security and get a gov't up and running. Something more like Bosnia/Kosovo.

Answer 4

Immediate saturation bombing for over thirty days from high altitude B-1 bombers using nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare bombs. Knock down the population a tad.

When the neutron radiation stops glowing a bit, send in the American Foreign Legion composed of illegal immigrants, criminals, and romantic adventurers to shoot the resisting terrorists. The American Foreign Legion would be backed up by the 4th and 3rd armored divisions of Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles and Abram Tanks with flame throwers and cluster bombs.

Then the 4th, 5th, and 3rd infantry divisions, regular army, would envelop the entire country of Iraq.

U.S. Navy Seabees and the Army Corp of Engineers would immediately begin building a 100 foot high fence totally around Iraq with accompanying minefields and electronic survellience, with 'smart' booby traps and robotic sentinels.

All the surviving Iraqi men would be put to work while the surviving Iraqi women would be shipped off to Africa. The former Iraq would be divied up and sold to China or Russia.

We then move on and do the same thing to Iran.

Answer 5

Local provinces should have been set up and elections held early in the occupation while it was relatively peaceful. The resources should have been divided up in the beginning between Kurd, Sunnis, and Shia. In this case, the locals would have had someone to turn to and they would have not have felt that they were going to be controlled by the other groups.

The Iraq army should not have been disbanded and the professionals, who all belonged to the Baath party, should have been left to do their duties, ex: teachers, doctors, etc. Instead they fled the country due to the disbanding of the Baath party. The locals should have been hired by the construction crews and in other jobs where ever possible so they would have been employed.

Answer 6

I would do a slow roll, going for the Shiite and Kurd areas first. Remember Saddam was hated by the Shiites and the Kurds, yet together they represent over 80% of Iraq's population. I then would have trained and supplied the Shiites and Kurds to go into the Sunni areas. That's how Gengis Khan took Iraq with a small force.

Answer 7

You cannot win a war against small, guerrilla, unidentified groups of insurgents. The only way to "win" against them is to obliterate them, and that would have been absolutely impossible.

Having said that, there was no reason to go to war, no purpose served by it, and the insurgents would not have been there if we had not created this war. Furthermore, when you do have a group you strongly disagree with, the best thing to do is virtually always to communicate and come up with a diplomatic solution. "Winning" a war only happens if you completely obliterate the enemy (virtually impossible) or if the enemy is an identifiable cohesive group that decides to surrender, which was not the case in Iraq. The defeat of the US was very predictable.

Answer 8

I would send more troops, conquer Iraq, and immediately seal the border. Shoot to kill any jihadist trying to enter, and crush any insurgency like a grape.
Politically, I would bring all three factions together and listen to what they want the new Iraq to be. I would leave any and every option on the table, whether it was a federalism or partition.

Answer 9

see some human beings think of we try this basically for oil and that they are incorrect. We first went there to handle the terrorist yet then sadam had to start up $h!t and we had to bypass get him. They have been additionally employing oil to create weapons. yet another concern exchange into we attempt to get the oil an availability to be distrabuted for the period of the international. the international desires oil and we are determining of it. however the main answer is that confident we are able to if congrass shall we us even if it may be for the incorrect and ideal reason.

Answer 10

Before anyone can decide how to win the war, someone has to say what the objective of invading is.

The Generals that have been offered the War Czar position (now renamed the Execution Manager by Bush)have declined it because Bush and Cheney don't know what they want to accomplish in Iraq.

So, one thing is, decide what you want to do before you start killing people and blowing things up.

Answer 11

Leave them alone to live like people did in the 15th century.
Oh wait, they're doing that now.

Best thing we could have done is NOT GO...end of story.