A year ago Army General John Abizaid took over as head of U.S. Central Command and declared that troops were fighting a “classic guerilla-type war” in Iraq. But it seems that describing the conflict, didn’t make it any easier to fight.
In the 12 months since, hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqis have been killed. Some are hoping the American military can step to the sidelines now that the Iraqis are assuming more responsibility. But there are more and more questions being asked about what went wrong, and what the U.S. might have done to better manage the insurgency. Some say it’s a failure of leadership and strategy.
As the largest and best-funded army in the world still struggles to identify and find the enemy, others ask if the U.S. is still fighting old wars instead of learning from this one.
Guests:
Mark Mazzetti, Defense Correspondant for the Los Angeles Times
Annia Ciezadlo, correspondant for The Christian Science Monitor
Douglas MacGregor, Colonel with the Center for Technology and National Security at the National Defense University and author of “Transformation Under Fire: Revolutionizing How America Fights”
Owen Cote, Associate Director of MIT’s Security Studies Program and Co-Editor of International Security and adjunct Lecturer at the JFK School of Governement at Harvard University.