Benson, Colonel Kevin, Expectation of Valor, Planning For The Iraqi War, Casemate, 2024
Colonel Kevin Benson who was the chief planner for the 3rd Army wrote Expectation of Valor, Planning For The Iraqi War in response to the conventional wisdom that the U.S. military did not prepare for postwar Iraq in 2003. The author writes that the army did spend time coming up with ideas on how to secure and stabilize the country after the fall of Saddam. However he blames Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, General Tommy Franks and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) for undermining the work that was done.
Expectations of Valor is a very detailed and sometimes repetitive book on the planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It is not for novices due to the plethora of military acronyms used throughout. Many times Benson repeats himself as well such as writing that he spent the day preparing plans for Phase IV which was the postwar phase of the invasion.
If one can get through all the minutia the author paints a picture of plans that went awry in Iraq. First, Benson wanted a larger U.S. military presence in Iraq after the invasion to provide security. Second, the Americans were relying upon calling back the Iraqi military and bureaucracy to provide stability. While that would not have ensured that some Iraqis would resist the U.S. occupation it would definitely have helped things.
As the book relays Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Iraq commander General Franks and the CPA did away with these ideas. Rumsfeld questioned the deployment of units throughout the pre-war process, during the invasion and afterwards. He wanted as small a force as possible to be used in Iraq and then when the fighting was over ordered troops out quickly. General Franks complied with those demands. Together they stopped an additional division from being sent to Iraq and one already in the country was pulled out. The CPA then banned the Baath Party and dismissed the Iraqi military. Together these meant there were few U.S. troops in Iraq to provide security, the Iraqi government was crippled and many Iraqis were angry and wanted to take revenge upon the Americans.
Benson has a general disdain for the Pentagon which was constantly interfering in war plans with inane questions and requests. For instance in June 2002 Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz asked why the U.S. couldn’t invade Iraq with just one brigade which was already in Kuwait. The military had to write a detailed response which took time away from war planning. Rumsfeld believed the deployment process which determined when ships, supplies and troops were sent was outdated and that he could run the system himself on an ad hoc basis. He tried to micromanage the war such as when he gave orders to a division about what they should do during the invasion and wanted to remove a division commander when he said that the war didn’t unfold like what they planned for. Benson believed the civilians in the Pentagon not only knew nothing about the military but thought they were smarter than the officers. He considered them a huge distraction. More importantly when the invasion was over their thinking undermined postwar Iraq.
Expectations of Valor is an important book in the literature on the planning and execution of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It is not for the average reader who could easily got lost in the military jargon that is constantly used. It showed that the American military did plan for handling Iraq after the fall of Saddam but that the Pentagon and the Coalition Provisional Authority were not interested in them and chartered their own course which had devasting consequences.
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