I wonder what leadership training our senior politicians receive? I was prompted to ask myself the question having seen yet another Tony Blair interview, as he does the rounds on tv shows to promote his autobiography. The issue that constantly crops up in these interviews is Tony Blair’s leadership during the Iraq war.
Discussing whether invading Iraq was the right or wrong thing to do needs more space than I can devote to in a blog. What stands out for me though is that having “won” the invasion, the West clearly “lost” in terms of managing the post-war situation in Iraq. Tony Blair’s reaction is that the insurgency was a new type of war and the US/UK had to learn how to defeat it. My reaction is that the insurgency tactics could have been anticipated.
In fact they had been anticipated some 14 years earlier, in a 1989 article “The Changing Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation”. Written by the US Marine Corps the article identified that, in the next generation of wars, terrorists may seek to win through ideas rather than better technology. The article also highlighted that terrorists would “try and use the enemy’s strength against him.”
It is sad that it was the terrorists, rather than our leaders, that took this article on board. Firstly in using our own planes to attack the US in 2001. Then in Iraq and Afghanistan where, rather than fight face-to-face against a technologically superior enemy, the terrorists chose to use primitive roadside bombs.
Tony Blair and George Bush both failed to anticipate the type of resistance that would exist after the invasion of Iraq. I would put this down to a lack of planning. Whether this was also a failure of leadership I will leave you to decide.
By Jon Davies | Righttrack’s Interim International Business Development and Marketing Manager