War and the Art of Governance

"Power is one thing. The problem of how to administer it is another." (1) --Douglas MacArthur On 9 April 2003, jubilant crowds and US troops toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad and drew down the curtain on the major combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Within hours of the liberation of Baghdad, amid spreading disorder and growing expectations, debate began over the reconstruction challenges ahead. Criticism and frustration with the chaos on the ground intensified over the apparent failure of the United States to plan adequately for the restoration of political and economic order once major combat operations had ended. The root of Washington's failure to anticipate the political disorder in Iraq rests precisely in the characterization of these challenges as "postwar" problems, a characterization used by virtually all analysts inside and outside of government. The Iraq situation is only the most recent example of the reluctance of civilian and military leaders, as well as most outside experts, to consider the establishment of political and economic order as a part of war itself. The point is not academic. It is central to any effective reconstruction strategy in future wars and has profound implications for the military's planning, command arrangements, and implementation of current and future governance operations. (2) Military and political leaders need to distinguish between governance operations, which are a core element of all wars, and activities such as peace operations and peacekeeping that may occur independently of war. Labeling political and economic reconstruction as a postwar problem muddles the fact that central to strategic victory in all wars fought by the United States has been the creation of a favorable political order, a process overseen and administered by US military forces--usually the Army. The United States entered virtually all of its wars with the assumption that the government of the opposing regime would change or that the political situation would shift to favor US interests. During the Spanish-American War, we sought to change the governments of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and succeeded. During the Civil War, Washington was determined to change the way the South was governed. In Panama in 1989, the United States ousted Manuel Noriega, and the war did not end until the regime against which US forces had fought was out of power and political stability had resumed. In virtually all contingencies, political leaders in Washington conceded that only US military forces were up to the task of overseeing and implementing this final aspect of war. Arguably, the 2003 war in Iraq is rooted in the most prominent recent case where the political order did not change--the 1991 Gulf War. Some top Defense Department leaders have called the 2003 war a logical conclusion to the 1991 campaign. President Bush's early concerns, which emerged during his presidential campaign, about the involvement of US military forces in nation-building and peace operations stemmed from his desire to avoid overextending American resources and commitments. (3) A clear distinction between governance operations that are integral to war and the myriad of missions referred to in the peace operations discourse would be hugely beneficial. Such a distinction would allow US defense planners to focus on the political and economic reconstruction that is a part of war, while relegating humanitarian and nation-building missions to other organizations. Moreover, equating the governance tasks that occur in all wars with the broader missions associated with peace operations and humanitarian assistance reinforces the tendency to avoid planning for governance operations in tandem with planning for combat operations. The essential point is this: Combat operations and governance operations are both integral to war and occur in tandem. US soldiers in Iraq today are wondering why, if "the war is supposed to be over, we are still being shot at. …