Iraq (2004) | The United States Is Failing to Establish Order in Iraq

During the lead-up to the [2003] Iraq war, hawkish Pentagon appointees like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz predicted that the conflict could be won with as few as 50,000 troops. Meanwhile, senior generals like Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki and CENTCOM Commander Tommy Franks said that it would take at least 200,000 for the offensive and far more to police and rebuild the country after victory. For a brief week at the end of March [2003], as U.S. troops met stiff resistance in Nasiriya and found their supply lines harassed in the south, it seemed the generals’ doubts about...

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