Message from the Editor

Our essays on “Iraq and Beyond” might appear to be retrospective on the surface, but their core conclusions remain vital, useful, and relevant for Iraq right now and for potential conflicts elsewhere in the future. Each essay outlines numerous lessons learned but not yet fully applied.

The centerpiece and accompanying essay by Eric Peltz and his team of logistics researchers bring to light, more than three years after the invasion of Iraq, some unfamiliar details of the operation. The challenge of sustaining U.S. forces was most acute early in the war, but some of the problems persisted well into the conflict and have only recently been resolved. There are numerous indispensable lessons to be learned from the nuts-and-bolts assessment of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The essay by James Hosek on promoting reenlistments describes some of the continuing concerns expressed by U.S. soldiers deployed to Iraq and also by those left behind. All strata of personnel have reported rising levels of stress associated with the heightened pace of military operations. As the stress has gone up, the intentions to reenlist have gone down. Policymakers are working to implement a variety of measures to offset the negative effects among personnel, and in fact actual retention rates have remained high. However, the concerns will not go away any time soon.

The concluding essay by Andrew Rathmell and his colleagues, all of whom served with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq during 2003 and 2004, offers an insider’s view of what has gone right and what has gone wrong with rebuilding Iraqi security institutions. The essay underscores the importance of long-term efforts to cultivate police, judicial, intelligence, defense, and other security institutions, whether in Iraq or in any other country, in the wake of armed conflict. Such efforts are now being debated daily in Baghdad, Washington, and London.

—John Godges