Focusing on the U.S. Marine Corps' campaign against al Qaeda in Anbar from 2004 to 2008, the book highlights how strategic adaptations and lessons learned from past conflicts led to a significant turning point in the Iraq War. Initially facing overwhelming violence and skepticism about success, the Marines implemented new counterinsurgency tactics during their second deployment, ultimately regaining control of the region by September 2008. Richard Shultz challenges the prevailing narrative that the Surge was the key turning point, emphasizing the Marines' crucial role in altering the war's trajectory.
The Marines' campaign to secure Anbar Province in Iraq will rank as one of the Corps' historic battle achievements. Dick Shultz's brilliant account of that campaign is rich in lessons learned and examples of adaptability. The Marines Take Anbar will be a classic study in counter insurgency." {u2500} Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, USMC (Ret.) The U.S. Marine Corps' four-year campaign against al Qaeda in Anbar is a fight certain to take its place next to such legendary clashes as Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Chosin, and Khe Sanh. Its success, the author contends, constituted a major turning point in the Iraq War and helped alter the course of events and set the stage for the Surge in Baghdad a year later. This book brings to light all the decisive details of how the Marines, between 2004 and 2008, adapted and improvised as they applied the hard lessons of past mistakes. In March 2004, when part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) was deployed to Anbar Province in the heart of the Sunni triangle, the Marines quickly found themselves locked in a bloody test of wills with al Qaeda, and a burgeoning violent insurgency. By the spring of 2006, according to all accounts, enemy violence was skyrocketing, while predictions for any U.S. success were plummeting. But at that same time new counterinsurgency initiatives were put in place when I MEF returned for its second tour in Anbar, and the Marines began to gain control. By September 2008 the fight was over. Richard Shultz, a well-known author and international security studies expert, has thoroughly researched this subject. His book effectively argues the case for the Marines changing the course of the war at Anbar, which is contrary to the conventional wisdom that the Surge was the turning point. -- Amazon.com book description
By focusing on four specific hotbeds of instability-Somalia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Iraq-Richard H. Shultz Jr. and Andrea J. Dew carefully analyze tribal culture and clan associations, examine why "traditional" or "tribal" warriors fight, identify how these groups recruit, and where they find sanctuary, and dissect the reasoning behind their strategy. Their new introduction evaluates recent developments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the growing prevalence of Shultz and Dew's conception of irregular warfare, and the Obama Defense Department's approach to fighting insurgents, terrorists, and militias. War in the post-Cold War era cannot be waged through traditional Western methods of combat, especially when friendly states and outside organizations like al-Qaeda serve as powerful allies to the enemy. Bridging two centuries and several continents, Shultz and Dew recommend how conventional militaries can defeat these irregular yet highly effective organizations.
In Transforming US Intelligence for Irregular War, Richard H. Shultz Jr.
provides a broad discussion of intelligence in combatting nonstate militants.
He revisits the innovation of TF 714 during the Iraq War, showing how the
defense and intelligence communities can adapt to new and evolving foes.
