Editorial Note
As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran widens, the most consequential arena may not be purely military but geo-economic.
In February 2003, a month before the Iraq War by a US-led coalition, General Eric Shinseki, then US Chief of Army Staff, delivered a pivotal testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He expressed grave misgivings on the fate of post-Saddam Iraq, stating that hundreds of thousands of soldiers will be required to stabilise the country in the aftermath of the invasion, alluding to a prolonged military engagement and significant US boots on the ground. His trenchant analysis was met with backlash from civilian leadership, especially Paul Wolfowitz, then Deputy Secretary of Defence, who publicly spurned it as “wildly off the mark.”