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1 results

  • 6 - The Result Is Never Final: Operation Iraqi Freedom

  • Edited by Phil Haun, Colin Jackson, Tim Schultz
  • Book:
    Air Power in the Age of Primacy
    Published online:
    16 December 2021
    Print publication:
    16 December 2021, pp 121-147

  • Summary

    For more than thirty years, a conventional mindset of applying force has clashed with the passions of the Iraqi people, complicating decisive outcomes despite US-led coalitions possessing overwhelming technological superiority in Iraq. Most studies of Operation Iraqi Freedom focus almost exclusively on the first few weeks of largely conventional

    force employment, thereby missing how much this campaign has in common with other contemporary air campaigns. Air power made enormous contributions against the military “leg” of the Clausewitzian triangle over the course of thirty years with precision and stealth capabilities, but this advantage does not translate neatly into enduring strategic effect. As such, OIF should be reevaluated in a balanced manner that focuses more on the complex interactions between militaries, governments, and people and less on the overwhelming application of US kinetic force.