Contesting History

President George W. Bush completed his eight years in office with a plea to the American public that it understand the gains the United States accrued from the war he had initiated in Iraq. Bush argued repeatedly at the close of 2008 that the war was necessary to safeguard America, that this larger good overcame any errors in the conduct of the war, mistakes that even the president admitted had occurred. An examination of several specific past conflicts and relating these to the Iraq War of 2003 proves this argument to be false. A historical comparison does so both by underscoring just how badly the administration managed the war, and how these mistakes have undone the last importance the president attached to the war-- that it has kept the United States safe. In fact, by using history as a guide, the damage to U.S. national security is fully comprehended. There are a number of instances where conventional military force failed to defeat an insurgency, but this book selects wars where, as in the case of Iraq, combatants from outside the war zone entered the conflict to fight on behalf of the insurgency. In each of the five case studies in the book, the counterinsurgency's overwhelming military superiority was indisputable, yet victory still eluded it and the inability of the occupying army to force the conflict to a close resulted in a humiliating defeat.