Opinion (Col. Mike Turner): Living the Worst-Case Scenario

Dec. 20, 2006 - On March 11, 2003, 10 days before the first shot was fired in what is now the war in Iraq, I wrote my first commentary for National Public Radio. It asserted that the upcoming conflict was not, as many Americans apparently believed, Desert Storm II, but actually more like America’s operation in Somalia. The war in Iraq, I wrote, would be nation-building on a grand scale, a disaster waiting to happen. I pointed out that U.S. policy represented a complete rejection of the Powell doctrine, which demands a political objective before committing U.S. troops and whose validity was proven during Desert Storm. The commentary went on to paint a horrific worst-case scenario in which the United States became bogged down in a nightmarish insurgency with American troops as occupiers, isolated from allies and unable to find any credible way out.

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