IAFS 1000

Iraq and the Counterinsurgency Debate

Lecture Outline• Counterinsurgency

• Feisal I of Iraq

• Cairo Conference

• British Withdrawal and Return

• Independent Iraq

Counterinsurgency (COIN)

• John Nagl (interview)

– 2005: Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife

– 2006: role in writing COIN Field Manual

• Defying categorization:

– Andrew Bacevich

– Sarah Sewall

Andrew Bacevich on COIN

• 2005: The New American Militarism

• 2008: The Limits of Power

• Force is “an exceedingly uncertain instrument”

Sarah Sewall on COIN

• Member of Defense Policy Board

• 2007: introduction to COIN FM reprint

• Humanitarians must engage with military (see also Montgomery McFate)

Faisal I of Iraq (1883-1933)

• Son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca

• Early Arab nationalist

• 1921-33: King of Iraq

Cairo Conference (1921)• Growing Arab unrest

• British desire to reduce financial burden of empire, legitimize Middle East involvement

• Kurdistan

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/images/iraq-map-group1.gif

British Withdrawal

• Faisal’s resistance

• British domestic pressure to withdraw

• 1932: Iraqi independence

. . . and Return• 1936 military coup (precedent)

• 1938: Nuri al-Said to power

• 1939: death of King Ghazi

• 1941: pro-German coup, British invasion

• 1948: British withdrawal

Republican Iraq

• 1958: republican coup, Nuri killed

• 1963: Baath party coup

• 1979: Saddam Hussein to power

Iraq under Saddam Hussein

• 1980-1988: Iran-Iraq war

• 1990-1991: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

>>> Gulf War

• 2003: US invasion of Iraq

>>> insurgency

Lessons

• Value of ambiguity, shades of gray