When lessons learned from the major combat operations phase of Operation IRAQI
FREEDOM were briefed to the nation’s top leaders, the question was asked “how did
events leading to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime look from the Iraqi perspective?”
That question was posed to the Joint Advanced Warfighting Program at the
Institute for Defense Analyses, triggering the Iraqi Perspectives Project (IPP), a research
effort sponsored by the United States Joint Forces Command that has delivered
several volumes of analysis and supporting materials, with more in production.
The IPP was reminiscent of an earlier effort, begun in 1946, when a team of US
Army historians and intelligence officers established a relationship with one timeenemy
of the United States, a group of former members of the German General Staff,
to develop an understanding of familiar events from an unfamiliar point of view.
This volume marks the extension of that same methodology under a different sponsor,
the National Intelligence Council, to encompass a broader spectrum of Middle
Eastern military history from the perspective of Lieutenant General Ra’ad Hamdani,
who during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM commanded Saddam Hussein’s II Republican
Guard Corps. Interviewed over a number of days by project leader Kevin
Woods and historian Williamson “Wick” Murray, General Hamdani shared his
knowledge about a wide range of subjects, with particular emphasis on his experiences
in Iraq’s long war against Iran.
The primary stated objective of Project 1946 is to produce a series of personal, organizational,
and campaign histories of contemporary Iraq. This volume is the first
in that series, provided with the hope that it will improve our understanding of
Middle Eastern military thought, the new Iraqi military, neighboring countries, and
the dynamics of a region of the world that is vital to US interests.
Retired U.S. general on how to handle IS and why we lost in Iraq, Afghanistan
Donald S. Mitchell's 1946 Goodyear Racer flying wing design