“The
Iraq War in
the Asymmetric
Perspective”
PREPARED
BY:
Mohamad Fahmi Bin Mohamad Maswan
Marzunaidi Bin Marzuki
Muhammad Zakwan Bin Abd Ghani
Mohamad Zaquwan Bin Mohd Zain
Muhammad Rosli Bin Ahmad
LECTURER: Lt Col Assoc Prof Ajaya Kumar
NATIONAL DEFENCE UNIVERSITY OF MALAYSIA
DEPARTMENT OF STRATEGIC STUDIES ASYMMETRIC WARFARE DIS 3123
INTRODUCTION
War
on Iraq also known as Iraq war, second gulf war or Occupation Iraqi Freedom by
US military, was a war declared by Prime Minister of United State (US), George
W. Bush on March 2003[1]. The
advocacy between these two political powers said to be a continuation of the
1990-1991 Gulf War[2]
as it significantly shows the collision between US and Iraq again. The initial
of the war is based on Bush of US and Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Tony
Blair who seeks for UN approval for war as they claimed that Iraq under
President Saddam Hussein constructed Weapon Mass of Destruction (WMD) which
simultaneously departs from the United Nation Security Council (UNSC)
resolutions 1441[3].
This resolution force Iraq under Saddam Hussein to obey the disarmament
obligation. Iraq not only prohibited in proliferation of WMD, but also in
several types of missiles and also the purchase and import of prohibited
armaments.
Although United Nation
Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found no evidence of WMD in Iraq declaration of
weapon, its accuracy still being questions by US and UK. Iraq are accused by US
that they have connection also supporting Al-Qaeda, the transnational criminal
group. But no evidences of connection were found. However, US with policy of
“War on Terror” under President Bush become the orientation of US invasion in
Iraq. By taking the precaution steps from being attack at the first place, US
invade Iraq on March 2003 to launch war on terrorism and at the same time to
seek for them self the WMD weapon in Iraq. US invasion in Iraq led to an
occupation and the capture of President Saddam Hussein who was later tried in
an Iraq court of law. Saddam was found guilty then been executed by the new
Iraq government. US troops remain to continue their mission to set up peace in
Iraq and prepare the Iraqi people to have a new government. Reconstruction on
political, economic and social were focus by US to improve Iraq to be a better
nation.
Saddam`s government
have to go through an unbalanced warfare in facing the coalition of US when
Iraq were overwhelm with unreliable charge, and the combination of great power
to fall him down. Unbalance of power in Iraq war is one of the factors that
caused Iraq doesn’t have chance to stand and launch counter attack to US. US
are superior and have a package of plan to invade Iraq after Afghanistan.
Violence by US coalition force to various indigenous group of Iraq soon led to
Iraqi Insurgency, mostly between Sunni[4]
and Shia[5]
group.[6]
On
October 21, 2011, the new elected President Obama announced that all U.S.
troops and trainers would leave Iraq by the end of the year, bringing the U.S.
mission in Iraq to an end. The
protracted war end on 15 December 2011, when US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
officially declared the end of war on Iraq. The declaration was made on flag
lowering ceremony in Baghdad. Under the Presidency of Barrack Obama which
elected on late February 2009, the last US troops left Iraqi territory is on 18
December 2011.[7]
OVERVIEW
The initial of the war
on Iraq is based on Bush of US and Tony Blair of UK who seek for UN approval
for war as they claimed that Saddam of Iraq constructed Weapon Mass of
Destruction (WMD). Saddam Hussein in UNSC resolution 1441 have to disarmed and
had to prove to UN that he had disarmed all the WMD. But the UN doubts the
declaration of weapon by Iraq. US and UK force UN to fulfill the resolution
regarding Iraq or they would take their own action by declaring war by them
self. Iraq becomes the attention after the incident of 9/11 on 2001. Saddam was
said to support the terrorism since he support Al- Qaeda, who responsible to
the incident. According to US president, George W. Bush and British Prime
minister, Tony Blair, under the policy of “War On Terrorism”, the invasion on
Iraq was to disarm Iraq from weapon of mass destruction, to end Saddam
Hussein`s support for terrorism and to free the Iraqi people[8].
The invasion of US to
seek for Iraq`s proliferation of WMD have make a costly war since it is a
protracted. Under the name of Democracy, US influence Iraqi People to have a
new government. In history of Gulf war on 1991, cease-fire negotiation between
UN Coalition and Iraq had been made. By referring this, and make incident of
9/11 as an immediate effect, US and UK make a charge to Iraq and accuse Iraq
have make a proliferation of WMD and supporting Al-Qaeda as a ticket for them
to invade Iraq. US combined force troops with UK, Australia and Poland during
the initial invasion which lasted from 19 March to 9 April 2003[9]
manage to toppled Saddam Hussein`s regime in the 21 days of major combat
operation.
IRAQ
WAR AND ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE
Asymmetrical warfare
define as two belligerent differ in the struggle, interact and attempt to
exploit each other`s characteristic weaknesses. According to Andrew J.R Mack`s
“Why Big Nation Lose Wars” article in
World Politics, asymmetric refer to
significant disparity in power between opposing actors in a conflict. “Power”,
in this sense, is broadly understood to mean material power, such as a larger
army, sophisticated weapons, an advanced economy and so on. But in 2004, the
study had broaden to the difference in strategy and tactics.
The adversary of US and
Iraq explained the battle of two powers asymmetrically. US have urged UN to
become more serious about Iraq. As one of the great power in the world, US have
many supporters to do what they want through their policies. Iraq, under
turmoil[10]
starting 2003 caused by the invasion of US show the difference in term of power
and world influences since US manage to occupy Iraq. By convincing the world
through media and any other sources, President Bush of US gain support from UK
and also UN to invade and drag Iraq who solely against them until the downfall
and execution of Saddam Hussein.
ACTORS
IN IRAQ WAR
The Iraq war always
become the big issue that have been discussing in White House since there are
many conflict have been made by Iraq because of their stubborn to follow the
United States instruction. The decision to
invade Iraq remains controversial despite initially high United States approval
of the decision. In a January 2003, 64% of U.S.
nationals had approved of military action against Iraq, however 63% wanted Bush
to find a diplomatic solution rather than go to war, and 62% believed the
threat of terrorism directed against the U.S. would increase due to war.[11]
The
invasion of Iraq was strongly opposed by some traditional U.S. allies,
including the governments of France, Germany, New Zealand, and Canada.[12]
Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq and that invading the country was not justified in the context of UNMOVIC‘s (United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission) 12 February 2003 report. On 15 February 2003, a month before the
invasion, there were worldwide protests against the Iraq war, including a rally of three million people in Rome.
This is partly due to the effort’s failure to find significant quantities of
weapons of mass destruction or an active manufacturing program in Iraq, this
was one of the main justifications for the war.
The failure to find weapons of mass destruction was a major
embarrassment for the Bush administration, and led to increasingly charges that
the administration had lied or presented unverified evidence.
United States declared
war on Iraq because according to British Prime Minister, Tony Blair said that
the trigger was Iraq's failure to take a final opportunity to disarm itself of
alleged nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that U.S. and British officials
called an immediate and intolerable threat to world peace.[13] This
war also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom by United States military. Before the
war begins, there are many actors that played an important role that involve in
this war. It can be divided into two which is main actors and supporting
actors.
MAIN
ACTORS
The main actor that are
exactly we can see in this war is George W. Bush which is the President of
United States and the Leaders of the Iraq Saddam Hussein. Both of them are the
two actors that lead their military and deciding a suitable tactics to be
applied into war that are conduct by military commanders of their country.
George W. Bush is masterminding of United States in maneuvers their army to
invade Iraq that is assisted by General Tommy Franks which is a Commander of
the United States Central Command at that time. They are very sure to gain a
victory in this war because of their military capabilities and their modern
technology of the weapon more up-to-date than the weapon that has been used by
Iraq armed forces.
In Iraq, the military
have been lead by Saddam Hussein try to defend Iraq from the attack by the
United States armed forces by using all their best effort to stop United States
from invading their country. Even though their military capabilities are not as
strong as United States armed forces, Saddam Hussein regime try to used
asymmetric warfare as part of their tactic to face the modern technology of
weapon used by United States.
SUPPORTING
ACTORS
There are many
supporting actors that also involve in this war. They will provide many thing
for United States to help them invading Iraq such as sending their troops to
join with United States army, supply ammunition or food, provide advanced
military weapons and etc. The supporting
actors that emerged in Iraq war that helped United States are United Kingdom,
Spain, Australia, Poland, Portugal and Denmark. George W. Bush
administration briefly used the term Coalition of the Willing to refer to the
countries who supported militarily or verbally, the military action in Iraq and
subsequent military presence in post-invasion Iraq since 2003.[14] Approximately 148,000 soldiers from the United
States, 45,000 British soldiers, 2,000 Australian soldiers and 194 Polish
soldiers from the special forces unit GROM
(Operational Mobile Reaction Group) were sent to Iraq for the invasion.[15]
It is difference from
Iraq which is only gain support by the Arabs volunteers.[16]
There only a group that have been created by Ansar Al-Islam and the Islamic
Group of Kurdistan. From this we can conclude that Iraq did not gain any
support from the country that have strong military power. Saddam Hussein
regimes have to rely on their Iraqi army and irregular forces including Fedayeen Saddam
paramilitaries and Ba'ath Party militias.
CAUSES OF WAR IN IRAQ.
War
on terrorism.
There are a lot of
theories from many perspectives on how person define the war in Iraq. In
academic paper, there are controversial on how to define the factor of the Iraq
war. It is not just in U.S but around the world. On what we heard today, the
main causes on Iraq war that is also a factor that prolonged this war is
President George Bush said that it is a war on terrorism.[17] This
factor was the main factor after the incident of 11 September where President
Bush declared war on terrorism when they said that the Al-Qaeda crash the World
Trade Centre. As we know on what we learn in asymmetric warfare, terrorism is
one of irregular warfare. It is transnational crime means that it will be
everywhere. Al-Qaeda did not have a specific state to be their base. They are
everywhere because they are not struggle for their state but there was fight to
spread their ideology. So, they will use the strategy of asymmetric warfare
where they did not have a specific enemy. A civilian also can be their enemy as
their can achieve what they want. On other side, they said that U.S attacked
Iraq because Iraq was protecting Osama bin Laden where he is a mastermind of
the tragedy of 11 September. This also can be relate to the asymmetric warfare
because on the same statement. Osama can be everywhere because terrorism is a
transnational crime. So they are no point to blame U.S because they were
declares war on terrorism especially on Islamic religious. So when they get
some information about the Al-Qaeda on what they were stay, U.S will
automatically attack that that state. In this case, U.S had a history on bad
relation with Iraq. So, they use this point on how to attack Iraq. This is
because they have a good statement when they want to attack Iraq because Iraq
was protecting the terrorism and the main objective to U.S is they are declare
war on terrorism without think on which state they were stayed.
Saddam
commit war crime.
The second point in
academic paper that they discussed on the factor of Iraq war is Saddam was
committing crime and brutal acts on his own people. This was proved on the news
by reporter who was been there when that incident happen. Saddam was commit
crime that is a jus cogen crime means that the crime that is cannot be
apologize and it is opposite to the international law, law of armed conflict
and Geneva Convention. What Saddam had done to his owns people? As we know,
Saddam was practising a dictator leadership. What he said must be followed 100%
by his citizen whether it is good or not. In this case, they are two major
groups in that state that is Sunni and Syiah. Both groups are in the same
religion but they are believed in different ways on something. On what Saddam
had done, he raped a lot of woman, done some mass murder and others.[18]
Saddam claimed that it was intra-state problem and other state cannot intervene
his state but when the world see what Saddam had done, it means that other
power should involve in this case. So, U.S was declared war on Saddam Hussein
on what he had done. Saddam is a greed person who caused to the war on Iraq. He
was sitting on the largest deposits of oil in the world. He has everything. He
got billions of dollars in revenue.[19] He
had palaces, women and cars that everything could people possibly find but he
had no heart. This is why his people really hated to him but he did not on what
his people voice. On his mind, he was the best person and he can do whatever he
wanted to do. So, U.S took a step to Iraq before more thousand people will be
dead. What we can relate to the asymmetric perspective in this case is on how
U.S intervene Iraq. In this case, actually we can see that U.S was invaded Iraq
by his own people and their own capabilities. But in the same time, U.S was
supported the people of Iraq who also not agree with Saddam. U.S was
distributed the weapon to the people who not agree to Saddam. This is one kind
of asymmetric strategy that had done by U.S. This case was quite same such war
by proxy means that a state used other people to war and act as a
representative by their own state. Both U.S and Iraq was practised an irregular
strategy that is against the international law. As an example, U.S used
ambulance to bring their weapon. This is because ambulance was one of vehicle
that cannot be attacked during war that is one of the content on the law of
armed conflict. Second example is U.S was attacked the mosque in Iraq that is
one of place that cannot be attacked during war. By U.S side, they have a
reason why they attack the mosque in Iraq. This is because the combatant of
Iraq used mosque as their hiding place. According to the law of armed conflict,
a combatant cannot use mosque, church, temple or others place to make as their
hiding place. So, both Iraq and U.S was against the law of armed conflict in
their own reason.
Iraq
has Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD).
The third reason on the
factor that led to the war on Iraq is back to the history on 1990 where U.S and
most of superpower in the world claimed that Saddam Hussein tried to build
nuclear weapons.[20]
The main reason why other state being angry with the Saddam on the nuclear
weapon is Saddam said that they will attack Israel and in the same year Iraq
was invaded Kuwait. This case was led to the other superpower such as U.S to go
and stop them.[21]
Saddam said to his citizen where they must go to Kuwait, kill who they want to
kill, rape any woman who they want. This showed that Iraq invaded Kuwait
without have any specific reason. This statement was made other state become
wraith with Iraq. In this case, U.S just not came to Iraq by their own decision
but other state that was contiguous to the Iraq was called U.S for help to stop
Iraq. This is because U.S was one of superpower in the world and may be able to
stop Iraq compare to the other state that is contiguous to Iraq such as Saudi
Arabia and Jordan. In this case, U.S had done their job and they do a right
thing but what we heard today, U.S was great power that tried to invade Iraq in
totality. This statement also can be true because when the other state request
for help from U.S, U.S agreed to protect to settle this incident but when is
case already done, U.S still not leave the state of Iraq. This thing was make a
controversial on what is the U.S objective why they do not want to leave from
Iraq. In academic paper, certain philosopher said that U.S went to Iraq to stop
their conflict just a reason for them to enter the Iraq state but the main
reason why they go Iraq because of oil. As we know, Iraq is one of the largest
states in the world that produce oil if compare to the other state such Saudi
Arabia, Iran and others.[22]
Because of U.S lacked of the oil resources, they need an alternative ways to
settle their problem. This is also because they have a great power. So other
state just can say something from the back without do nothing. When other
country realized the real objective of U.S, this was cause to appear of hate of
other state to U.S. In this cases, Al-Qaeda decided upon on a second course to
attack U.S that is a direct attack to
the soil of U.S. Al-Qaeda claimed that U.S must go to stop Iraq because on the
Al-Quran also said that when someone was in trouble, we must to help them and
protect without consider their religious or other aspect. U.S claimed that they
were in Iraq because of Iraq were producing the weapon of mass destruction
(WMD). But in academic paper, they said that U.S no need to invade Iraq
automatically because they do not have any reason or prove that Iraq have that
kind of weapon. Just because of U.S feel of danger, they stayed on Iraq for a
long time and at the same time it also known as war. What we can relate this
factor to the asymmetric perspective is U.S was enter the state of Iraq in a
good reason but with a hidden objective. In this case, there was a statement
that quoted that there was no permanent friend but a permanent interest. When
the invasion of U.S in Iraq, they was done a lot of irregular warfare.
Actually, they said that it is a conventional warfare because they declared the
war against Iraq but the strategy on how the go into war is on the irregular
strategy in asymmetric warfare. They was killed a thousand of non-combatant in
the state of Iraq. U.S also claimed that during the incident of 11 September,
there were almost six thousand people were killed at that place including
civilian.[23]
But whether it is commensurate on what they had done in Iraq where more than
thousands of non-combatant was killed in the state of Iraq. This case was
become similar on what Iraq done in Kuwait and this was happen in Iraq back. As
a conclusion, nowadays every conflict, war and others will have an asymmetric
strategy because this type of strategy will give a lot of advantages to a state
such as they can save their costs of war, save their number of combatant and
others. As we know, a lot of asymmetric strategy was opposite to the
international law, law of armed conflict and other law that control the
condition of a war but we must know the victory state on a war will not get any
punishment from the international but the defeat state will suffer to the
punishment.
TACTIC
AND METHOD USED IN THE COMBAT OF IRAQ WAR
Tactics
is the matters how
act in the unit during
the battle. Tactics involve looking at the art
of fighting the war. The aspect that is
important criterion in assessing
is a military capability tactics.
Art of tactics consists
of three interrelated aspects of
creative and flexible
to achieve the mission assigned, can make
quick decisions when faced with
an enemy that wise and understand the effects of battle on their abilities. Tactics are different
from the situation. Specific
tactics used against the asymmetric enemy in
battle, but no specific set of tactics that are listed for asymmetric warfare, as each situation is different and
unique. Tactics are what we are doing the
opposite is not symmetric
when we know the
opponent's ability to fight it.
It is not only one side uses the asymmetric tactic in the combat, but both side
are apply the asymmetric tactic. In the Iraq war, tactics are used by
conflicting group between US and Iraq. The tactics are used by insurgent to
create civil unrest, by criminal gangs, by Shi’ite militias in reprisal
attacks, and by all the conflicting groups in the Iraq in sectarian and ethnic
cleansing.[24]
This is insurgency tactics used to drive escalating violence in Iraq. From the
beginning are from the insurgent group, terrorist, and extremist action with
the high casualties to give the publicity by the little time spend to attract
the media. Tactics are important to gain the victory whether US o Iraq actors.
TACTIC
USED BY IRAQ:
Martyrs
And Guerilla Tactics
Martyrs
purpose is to kill
as many U.S. troops as possible before they were killed. Time does not
have any interest in attacking U.S. troops. The
martyrs are to die
by the hands of
U.S. troops. As a result, they
can kill U.S.
troops, even if they die because of
their death was a
success in the hereafter by
their God.
Their
tactics are a way
to wait U.S. troops came to them and will
fight, and they
will die in this place. Guerrillas and Martyrs
are using the same weapon. The weapons used
are mostly small arms, grenades, and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). They
also used heavy machine guns
and anti-air gun.
Position
battles and the
tactics used by both quite similar. The
example to distinguish between guerillas and Martyrs are the method used to
exit routes or
forts. Guerilla movements
in the well plan, while not martyrs. Martyrs usually do not have a strong defense position. They will attack immediately without considering the effect
on themselves or
attack effects.
Clean Operation war in
Iraq, as known as Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). U.S.
troops face many problems in
fighting guerrillas and martyrs, especially in buildings
and houses. U.S. troops caught up in the city will
face a big problem.
Guerrillas would shoot
from the roof when they move into the city, guerrilla and Martyrs shooting
and throwing grenades from the door. Martyrs
have put the machine
gun position in the room while waiting for U.S. troops appear.
Guerrillas will run
faster and faster route planned out well. They move in groups and their
movements are usually through windows, back lanes, and from roof to roof. Exit
does not cross the roads open. This was done because the U.S. military snipers
are constantly watching their path during operation.
Tactic requirements for
each of the fighting are very important in Asymmetric warfare. There was no way
that can be used to fight irregular warfare but only using Asymmetric as well.
Improvised
Explosive Device (IED)
An
improvised explosive device (IED) attack is the use of a “homemade” bomb and/or
destructive device to destroy, incapacitate, harass, or distract.[25]
IEDs
can be designed in the form of small
pipe bombs to sophisticated devices that
can cause great damage and
loss of life. IEDs can be brought or sent in
the vehicle; brought, placed,
or removed by a
person who served in the package,
or hidden by the roadside. IED commonly used during
the war in Iraq that began in 2003.
IED
is the use of explosives in an ambush placed in
strategic locations. In Iraq, insurgent
and extremist groups use a lot of improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
and vehicle-borne Improvised explosive devices
(VBIEDs). Insurgents get a lot of explosives, as well as large bombs and artillery shells. Nearly
400 tons of HMX and RDX plastic explosive disappeared from the Qaqaa weapons
facility alone after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.[26]
Users
during the Iraq War
IED destroy a lot
of U.S. military vehicles,
many dead and
wounded soldiers. They do not
throw bombs, but placed a bomb place U.S.
military vehicle routes. It is more effective tactics to undermine morale of
U.S. troops in the war because
they cannot move and
always in fear
during the move. Therefore, attackers learn to make
a bomb Iraq based
on a combination of explosives
and hide it on the road with the potential of U.S. troops will go through the area.
IED
casualties as a result of increasing in Iraq, the percentage is higher than their U.S.
military seems to have been attacked by suicide
bombers and ambushes. For example, three Iraqi
soldiers were killed and 44 were injured
in a bomb attack on a bus VBIED them on 6 April, 2005.
Other
Tactic
Other tactics are also
effective in providing help Iraq against U.S. forces, namely by focusing on the
target and the maximum pressure on the social and political in Iraq, suicide
bombs, car bombs, and large-scale bombings. In addition, they will increase the
size and power of IEDs to overcome immunity shields the United States (U.S.)
and using a mixture of attacks and sieges, ambushes of U.S. troops during an
emergency contact detonation IEDs in the streets. They will also be trying to
exploit the capabilities of U.S. forces in combat and logistic vehicles seized.
The diversity and a complex mixture in an ambush by small arms and light
weapons favorable to Iraq to undermine the U.S..
"Swarming"
technique, and the attack on the vehicle to stop and seize vehicles. In
addition, the strengthening the Iraqi army attack in remote locations with the
use of small arms as weapons of RPGs, automatic weapons, and snipers. They also
strengthen the offensive line of communication (LOC), attack enemy rear areas,
and strike support activities to weaken the U.S. military intelligence (HUMINT)
and battle damage assessment (BDA).
The Asymmetric various
tactics used by Iraqi forces to overcome the U.S. military who have high
military capabilities. However, the U.S. military has the technology of
communication, sophisticated satellite and radar favorable to the U.S.. The
limited movement of Iraqi forces, and they are hide in buildings and houses are
used as their safe place.
TACTIC
USED BY U.S. TROOP:
Squad
Movement Tactics
Military Operations in
Urban Terrain (MOUT)[27] have
created casualty figures that are extraordinary compared to similar operations
conducted in different types of environments or in asymmetric warfare. The
casualties in MOUT present a significant challenge to small unit leaders. They
are need the tactics based on the asymmetric perceptions that will prevent
casualties.
During house to house
detailed explanation of the attack, the squad must minimize exposure in the
streets. The roads, especially in Fallujah, can be death traps if the squad was
involved. Squad should run from house to house in a state of alert, attack, and
in the appropriate position. Move not too many of soldier in the road and
walking by stages. They need to split up and running is not as rapid as that
squad cannot control and do not maintain the safety of all.
All the dangers of
motion must be protected. Security must be three-dimensional front, right and
left mainly or around. Each movement in the U.S. Army will try to move forward
one or more persons to assess the danger area is not covered. But if fire or
bomb look, the military will continue to protect the position of danger and
ready to attack. Perhaps the presence of the troops in to die or are injured,
but if you do the normal movement in buildings and houses will result in the
loss and the mission will not be achieved. If the U.S. military used this
tactics then all danger areas can be protected.
Ambush
Building by Breaking Wall
There
are three types of ways to break away
used in Fallujah.
The types are mechanical,
ballistic, and explosive. For mechanically is
to break the wall of the outer or inner
door has done much amphibious
assault vehicles (AAV), tanks, D 9 bulldozers, or HMMWV.
Sledgehammers and hooligans used to
invade the house wooden doors
or walls, but
this is not a
method and a good choice, but a place to do so. This tactic involves the
destruction of many buildings
and the building structure.
This
tactic is used to prevent enemy forces
immediately against the fight. Tear down the
walls it somewhat difficult,
but it is one of tactics
to find the enemy and kill them. However, in a small narrow and
D9 bulldozer or
tank cannot be used to break the door. Shotgun
and M16A4 was
used to break down the door.
M203 is also used to make penetration. Squad
will breach the
door 50 to 100
meters from the front of their position with the
M203. It can
break the wooden door
from the outside.
The
last type is with explosives. Types are to penetrate
the walls, gates, external doors,
and internal doors
by using the explosive. It is easy to destroy the door
with a bomb that
caused the wall collapse and injury to the
enemy. This tactics will weaken enemy to make a counter attack to the U.S.
troop whether them surrender or they are killed.
Initiative
Based Tactics (IBT)[28]
Initiative based tactics (IBT) should be
taught. There are four rules of IBT. They are the following:
- Cover
all immediate danger areas.
- Eliminate
all threats.
- Protect
your buddy.
- There
are no mistakes. Every Marine feeds off each other and picks up the slack
for the other. Go with it.
IMPACT
OF IRAQ WAR
The impacts of war with
Iraq are very extreme, not only in United States and Iraq, but it around the
Middle East and all over world. There are many actor and tragedies happen that
lead to the war in Iraq. In general the war between United State and Iraq that
was begin in 2003 and finish in 2011 impact to the economy and military
spending of United States, the environment and human health of both country.
The Iraq war also causes to the increasing of oil price, the balance situation
between country in Middle East and the ideology of jihad have labeled as a
terrorism activities.
There has been little
attention paid to the Iraq war’s impact on the United States economy. Some
people believed that wars and military spending in Iraq war increases are good
for the economy of United States. But, some people believe it also have a
negative impact to the economy. According to the analysis such as Columbia
University economist Joseph Stieglitz. He says the ultimate price tag for Iraq
— which administration officials initially pegged at $50 billion to $60 billion
— is easily $3 trillion or above.[29] The
budget that United States spend for the Iraq war became a critic to many
economic thinker and peoples. This is because they think government should
spend the money for domestic needed and prevent country from inflation that
happen because of the war. Inflation rates in Unite States would be
considerably higher in the scenario with higher military spending. In the first
five years, the annual inflation rate would be on average 0.3 percentage points
higher in the scenario with higher military spending. Over the full twenty year
period, inflation averages approximately 0.5 percentage points more in the high
defense spending scenario. After five years, the interest rate on 10-Year
Treasury notes is projected to be 0.7 percentage points higher than in the
baseline scenario. After ten years, this gap is projected to rise to 0.9
percentage points, and after twenty years to 1.1 percentage points.[30]
Iraq war also impact to
the environment and human health of both countries. As we know Iraq’s environment is already highly stressed During
the Gulf war between Kuwait and the war in 2003 increases the negative
environment. This is because of the oil pollution, bombing destruction, the use
of toxic weapons and fuel use. The burning oil fields in Iraq released almost
half a billion tons of carbon dioxide to atmosphere. This is an amount that has
been considered to be leading the progression of climate change over Iraq. The
result of the war in Iraq involving fighter jets, tanks, armour-piercing shells
and ground-shattering Massive Ordnance Air-Burst bombs will be wide scale and
serious environmental damage because of the bombing destruction. The use of
toxic weapons such as Ammunition with Depleted Uranium (DU) will cause up to
half a million cancer deaths over several decades to Iraq peoples. Local people
and humanitarian workers are most likely to be exposed to DU in the aftermath
of a conflict and the World Health Organisation said that young children are at
the greatest risk.[31] The
amount of fuel that is being burnt by military vehicles in Iraq to keep the
operation moving is massive. The use of fuel for United States to generate its
planes, boats and tanks are consuming 15 million gallons of fuel a day. The
impact for human health involved United States in Iraq war because of the
soldiers. There a thousand of United States soldiers was send to Iraq. Soldier
who was send to Iraq during the war become trauma and can cause the mental
disorders. Trauma occurs when a soldier was being ordered to commit acts that
they would never do such as killing people and it can cause a nightmare to them
in time over their live.
CONCLUSION
The
war in Iraq had a major impact on the ideology, activities, and mindset of
Islamist terrorist groups, and on the political culture of Global Jihad at
large. The fall of Saddam Hussein and his government brought about by the
United States and its Western allies, created and attracted a flow of Islamist
volunteers to the Iraq. Various old and new local Iraqi groupings have since
rapidly turned Iraq into a new war between the jihad sides against United
States and west. It was seizing the opportunity to take advantage of political,
social, religious, and cultural elements beyond global Jihad, to recruit a
growing number of Islamic youth to hate United States and anti-west. It was
affected Islamist groups throughout the Arab and Muslim world by supplying new interpretations
of Jihad accompanied by new strategic and tactic. The violent reality in Iraq,
which is liable to continue at least several years, has recently turned into an
arena for global Jihad. Global jihad marks and reflects the solidarity
of variety of movements, groups, and sometimes ad hoc groupings or
cells, which act under a kind of ideological umbrella of radical
interpretations of Islam.[32] The
global jihad is the new agenda of the al-Qaeda to influence all Muslim people
over the worlds with the influence Iraq war after the fall of Iraq. Al-Qaeda
group use the propaganda that United States and its allies was killing and
abuse many Muslims during war time and the way to fight back the cruel action
that United States make is with jihad.
The tactic and
strategic they also was change during and after the Iraq war. Al-Qaeda in Iraq
are particularly watchful of the media, and that the tactics used by al Qaeda
in particular heavily rely on the propaganda potential of large media sources.
According to Bruce Hoffman (2006), “What
I think has made the insurgency in Iraq so different from previous ones is the
insurgents' enormous media savvy”.[33] The
jihad groups are decentralized and get information based largely on where they
live, and not through a centralized network structure. This assumption also
seems to be in line with the general intelligence information available on the
Iraqi jihad.[34]
Al-Qaeda in Iraq also use a tactic such as rigging houses and shops with
explosives in a new tactic that defied the thousands of security forces in
Baghdad. This tactic makes the security force confused to find them because it
exploits gaps in the city defenses.
The
fall of the Iraq make a terrorist group such as al-Qaeda take advantages to
expand their propaganda about global jihad to all over Muslim words. They also
have changes their tactic to balance or reduce the asymmetric warfare against
the strong side like United States.
REFERENCES
Website
18. www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mout.htm
BOOK/ARTICLE/JOURNAL.
1. Rick
fawn & Raymond Hinnebusch, (2006) “The Iraq war: cause and
consequences” Lynne Rienner Publishers,
Inc.,
2. Basu, Moni (2011-12-18). "Deadly Iraq
war ends with exit of last U.S. troops". CNN. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
3. The Dominion Post 7 December 2008
4.
Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
31 January 2003.
6.
Australian
Department of Defence (2004). The War in Iraq. ADF Operations in the Middle East in
2003
8. Anthony
H. Cordesman with assistance from Emma R. Davies (2008) Iraq’s Insurgency and
the road to Civil Conflict. Greenwood Publishing Group.
9. Anthony
H. Cordesman with assistance from Emma R. Davies (2008) Iraq’s Insurgency and
the road to Civil Conflict. Greenwood Publishing Group. Page 691
10. Dean
Baker , May 2007, The Economic Impact
of the Iraq War and Higher Military Spending,
Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, D.C.
11. UNEPb, 2003. UNEP Recommends Studies of Depleted
Uranium in Iraq. 6 April 2003
12.
Byman (2007). There is
considerable debate about the definition of terrorism. For a detailed discussion, see Krueger and
Maleckova (2006)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Ahmed
S. Hashim (2009) “Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency”, Adelphi Paper 402, Routledge
- Rick
Fawn and Raymond Hinnebusch (2006) “The Iraq War: Causes and
consequences”, Lynne Rienner Publisher
- Ramesh
Thakur and Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu (2006) “The Iraq Crisis and World
Order”, United Nation University Press
- Don
Nardo (2001) “The Persian Gulf War: The War against Iraq”, Lucent Book
Inc.
- Anthony
H. Cordesman (2008) “Iraq Insurgency and the Road to Civil Conflict”
Center for Strategic and International Studies.
- Ali A. Allawi (2007) “The occupation of Iraq: Winning The War, Losing The Peace”, Yale University Press
[2] Rick fawn &
Raymond Hinnebusch, (2006) “The Iraq war: cause and consequences” Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., pg 1
[4] The word "Sunni"
comes from the term Sunnah, which refers to the sayings and actions of Muhammad that
are recorded in hadith(collections of narrations regarding Muhammad)
[5] "Shia" is the short
form of the historic phrase Shīʻatu ʻAlī , meaning "followers of Ali", "faction of
Ali", or "party of Ali"
[7] Basu, Moni (2011-12-18). "Deadly Iraq war ends with exit of last U.S.
troops". CNN. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
[10] Turmoil= A state of great
disturbance, confusion, or uncertainty
[12] The Dominion Post 7 December 2008
[13] Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. 31 January 2003.
[15] Australian Department of Defence (2004). The War in Iraq.
ADF Operations in the Middle East in 2003
[24] Anthony H. Cordesman
with assistance from Emma R. Davies (2008) Iraq’s Insurgency and the road to
Civil Conflict. Greenwood Publishing Group.
[25]
www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/prep_ied_fact_sheet.pdf
[26] Anthony H. Cordesman
with assistance from Emma R. Davies (2008) Iraq’s Insurgency and the road to
Civil Conflict. Greenwood Publishing Group. Page 691
[27]
www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mout.htm
[28]
http://www.strategypage.com/the_war_in_iraq/tactics/200541410.asp
[30] Dean
Baker , May 2007, The Economic Impact
of the Iraq War and Higher Military Spending,
Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, D.C.
[31] UNEPb, 2003. UNEP
Recommends Studies of Depleted Uranium in Iraq. 6 April 2003 http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?ArticleID=3952&DocumentID=309
[33] Quoted in Ross
(2006).
[34] Byman (2007). There
is considerable debate about the definition of terrorism. For a detailed discussion, see Krueger and
Maleckova (2006)
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