Small Wars Journal

Army’s Detailed Iraq War Study Remains Unpublished Years After Completion

Thu, 10/25/2018 - 6:26pm

Army’s Detailed Iraq War Study Remains Unpublished Years After Completion by Todd South – Army Times

Three years after its completion, a lengthy study of the Army’s role in the Iraq war remains unpublished, some say because of how it both praises certain Army leaders while also airing some “dirty laundry” regarding wartime decision-making.

A detailed account of the study’s history and current efforts to have it published was reported by the Wall Street Journal this week.

In that article, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the newspaper that he hopes to have the study published by the end of the year.

“We owe it to ourselves as an Army to turn the lessons learned as quickly and as accurately as we can, understanding that they are not going to be perfect,” he told the Journal.

The study, dubbed “The United States Army in the Iraq War,” was commissioned by then-Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno in 2013.

Army Times contacted the Office of the Chief of Public for more information on when the study would be published and why it wasn’t conducted by the Army Center for Military History.

“This paper is not an official history and it is expected to be published by the Army War College in mid-November," Cynthia O. Smith, Army spokeswoman, said in an email…

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