Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan This page intentionally left blank Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Edited by Beth Bailey and Richard H. Immerman NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2015 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. ISBN: 978-1-4798-7143-8 (hardback) ISBN: 978-1-4798-2690-2 (paperback) For Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data, please contact the Library of Congress. New York University Press books are printed on acid-f ree paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli- ers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Also available as an ebook To those who served This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Beth Bailey and Richard H. Immerman Part I. The Wars and Their Origins 1. The Wars’ Entangled Roots: Regional Realities and Washington’s Vision 21 Michael A. Reynolds 2. 9/11: Bush’s Response 54 Terry H. Anderson Part II. The Possibilities and Limits of American Military and Diplomatic Strategy 3. Intelligence and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 77 Richard H. Immerman 4. Assessing Strategic Choices in the War on Terror 99 Stephen Biddle and Peter D. Feaver 5. Military Strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq: Learning and Adapting under Fire at Home and in the Field 124 Conrad C. Crane 6. Human Rights as a Weapon of War 147 Jonathan Horowitz Part III. Waging and the Wages of War 7. The Combatants’ Experiences 175 Lisa Mundey 8. Fighting (against) the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 194 David Farber vii viii | Contents 9. Limited War in the Age of Total Media 220 Sam Lebovic 10. “Watching War Made Us Immune”: The Popular Culture of the Wars 238 Andrew C. McKevitt Part IV. Lessons and Legacies 11. Veterans’ Readjustment after the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars 261 David Kieran 12. The Lessons and Legacies of the War in Iraq 286 Robert K. Brigham 13. The Lessons and Legacies of the War in Afghanistan 308 Aaron B. O’Connell Timeline 333 Glossary 343 Notable Persons 351 About the Contributors 355 Index 359 Acknowledgments We must begin by thanking the contributors to this volume for their intel- lectual engagement, their professionalism, and their good humor. Their conversations at the workshop that initiated this project in October 2013 took us in some unanticipated directions and strengthened both the collection as a whole and the individual essays. We also thank Clara Platter for her early embrace of this work. Her encouragement, which included attending the ini- tial workshop and the offer of an advance contract, made our job as editors much easier. Clara and Constance Grady made NYU Press a pleasure to work with. We also thank faculty at the Army War College, particularly Tami Davis Biddle and her colleagues in the Department of National Security and Strat- egy, for helping to jump- start the project. Ironically, many of those faculty members could not attend the October conference because of the sequester. Gregory Daddis, from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and Kather- ine Epstein, from Rutgers, Camden, did attend, chairing sessions and offering insightful commentary. Carly Goodman, the Thomas Davis Fellow at Temple University’s Center for the Study of Force, proved vital to the organization of the conference. She also prepared the volume’s chronology. Carly’s successor as the Thomas Davis Fellow, Silke Zoller, painstakingly assembled the terms and list of terms. We also want to express our appreciation to Managing Editor Dorothea Halliday, Angelo Repousis, who prepared the index, and our copy editor, Jo- seph Dahm. Finally, we greatly appreciate the financial support of the Hertog Foundation and the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University. As is always the case, our friends and families offer support in countless different ways. We thank them all. ix