When U.S. Iraq Strategy Lost Its Way

In “The Death of U.S. Strategy in Iraq,” Robert Dujarric contends that by mid-2008 the United States had drifted from any coherent grand strategy, relying instead on reactive troop deployments and short-term security fixes rather than integrating military, political, and economic lines of effort. He argues that frequent changes in mission statements—from regime change to counter-insurgency to training Iraqi forces—undermined both U.S. credibility and Iraqi confidence.

Dujarric warns that without a clearly defined political endgame—anchored in negotiated power-sharing among Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian communities—military operations alone would continue to produce only temporary security gains. He calls on Washington to articulate measurable objectives, empower civilian reconstruction agencies, and leverage diplomatic pressure on regional actors to stabilize Iraq over the long term.