America at War The Battle for Iraq A View from the Frontlines

Introduction There are two lessons that we as a people learn anew every time we take up arms: Each war is different from those that came before. And every war is the same.There was much that made the war in Iraq unique, from the weapons with which it was fought to the way it was covered to the circumstances that led to those first air strikes on Baghdad on the night of March 19, 2003. This war was quick: U.S.-led forces required only three weeks to seize the capital city of a foreign power and less than a month to put an end to major combat. But this war also bore an extended preamble, an unusually long period marked by faltering diplomacy and a creeping sense of inevitability. And toward the end of that time before the fighting began, there came a reminder of this war's terrible kinship with every war that has ever been.CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod was embedded with elements of the Third Infantry Division in northern Kuwait as they prepared for the thrust into Iraq that would bring them to Saddam Hussein's abandoned palace. He asked a private, a young man girding himself physically, emotionally, and spiritually for battle, if he was afraid that war would not be what he expected it to be."I'm worried," the enlisted man replied, "that it's going to be exactly what I expect."Nations all have their reasons for fighting wars, and some observers have opined that this war was as elaborately justified as any in memory. President George W. Bush and his cabinet laid out their case before the United Nations, before Congress, before the American people, and before the world: Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction; he was in league with terrorists; he was a tyrant, a threat to his neighbors, and a destabilizing force in a region where stability is so badly needed.History, it has been said, is an argument without end, and it is history that will be the judge of the second Gulf War and the justifications behind it. But as we debate, we might also remember that those we called on to fight this war offered no arguments once the battle was joined. When the order came down, it fell to American and allied soldiers, Marines, sailors, and fliers to put reasons aside and perform their duties. As a nation, we Americans understand this now in a way that we perhaps failed to during the Vietnam era; it is an understanding that lies behind the words "I support our troops" -- words shared by this war's most vehement advocates and opponents alike.By the time the Third Infantry Division traversed the sand berm that separates Kuwait from Iraq, a majority of Americans stood behind President Bush's decision to go to war. But there was also a sizable minority of antiwar sentiment. Many in this country echoed an international chorus of dissent over the war's preemptive nature, its lack of U.N. backing, and the potential risks of new conflict in such a volatile part of the world.Maybe it was in part because of this divide in our national discourse that Americans of all ideological persuasions focused so closely on the heroic efforts of our fighting men and women. Because of the embed program, which put journalists among our armed forces as they fought, we were afforded an unprecedented chance to see these special people up close, in real time, as they went about their work. It was an instructive, often harrowing view into a world of death and danger, of superb professionalism and awe-inspiring endurance. I don't know anyone who watched and who, regardless of his or her feelings about the war itself, came away without a true sense of pride and admiration for these Americans in uniform. I know the same is true of the journalists who had the opportunity to share their world.This war saw what can genuinely be called revolutionary innovations in its planning, in its weaponry, and on the battlefield. When it comes to armed combat, we have seen the future and this is it. Digital technology aRather, Dan is the author of 'America at War The Battle for Iraq A View from the Frontlines' with ISBN 9780743257862 and ISBN 0743257863.