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> 31 August 2010 Last updated at 05:10 ETShare this
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> Assessing America's 'imperial adventure' in Iraq
> By John Simpson
> BBC World Affairs Editor, Baghdad
>
> US troops have been packing up as their combat operation in Iraq
> officially ends
> "This," a leading American supporter of President George W Bush
> wrote in a British newspaper back in February 2003, just before the
> invasion of Iraq, "is our imperial moment".
>
> He went on to argue that the British had no right to criticise
> America for doing what they themselves had done so enthusiastically
> a century before.
>
> But America's imperial moment did not last long. And now, seven
> years later, the US is criticised for just about everything that
> happens here.
>
> Opinion is evenly divided between those who are glad to see the
> Americans go, and those who criticise them for leaving too soon and
> potentially laying Iraq open to fresh sectarian violence.
>
> Continue reading the main story
> Struggle for Iraq
>
> In pictures: Seven years of war
> Iraq war in figures
> Bittersweet memories for Iraqis
> Shrunken superpower
> It is a pattern that every occupying power becomes used to. America,
> it seems, cannot do anything right - not even getting out.
>
> Most of the arguments in favour of invading back in 2003 have come
> to nothing.
>
> Many Iraqis welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein - 50% regarded
> the invasion as a liberation, according to a BBC poll taken in 2004,
> while 50% regarded it as an occupation - but nowadays it is hard to
> find anyone who sees America as Iraq's friend and mentor.
>
> Nor has the overthrow of Saddam Hussein led to a general domino
> effect towards democracy throughout the Middle East.
>
> On the contrary, America's position in the Middle East has been
> visibly eroded.
>
> Some of the things done by the American authorities in Iraq, based
> in the Green Zone in Baghdad, were sober, positive and practical.
>
> Some have become a burden, for instance the constitution the
> Americans wished on Iraq, which makes it fiendishly hard to create a
> decent effective government.
>
> Grotesque mismanagement
> And because the Green Zone administration was thrown together in a
> huge hurry back in 2002-03, overseen by former Defence Secretary
> Donald Rumsfeld - a man with no interest in nation-building - some
> of what was done involved grotesque levels of corruption and
> mismanagement.
>
>
> The toppling of Saddam Hussein failed to trigger any domino effect
> in the Middle East
> Mr Rumsfeld was sent a careful, conscientious 900-page report by the
> state department containing detailed plans for the post-invasion
> period. He reportedly dumped it, unopened, straight into his waste-
> paper basket.
>
> Iraqis, and some Americans, pile a good deal of the blame for what
> happened during this period on to Mr Rumsfeld's ally Paul Bremer,
> the temperamental pro-consul who often seemed unaware of what was
> going on right under his nose.
>
> Former Vice-President Dick Cheney, when asked by the Saudi foreign
> minister why the US insisted on going ahead with the invasion,
> answered: "Because it's do-able."
>
> But the problem began even higher up.
>
> A respected Iraqi dissident, who later became vice-president, has
> described how shocked he was to find, a few weeks before the
> invasion, that President Bush seemed wholly unaware that Muslims in
> Iraq were divided between Shia and Sunni Islam.
>
> American generals seemed to despair of finding a solution to the
> growing insurgency.
>
> Petraeus's luck
> The US forces, contrary to all the basic rules of counter-
> insurgency, allowed the enemy to attack "Route Irish", the main road
> between Baghdad airport and the Green Zone, as and when it chose.
>
> Continue reading the main story
> John Simpson in Iraq
>
> The BBC's world affairs editor was one of a team of BBC
> correspondents in Iraq in 2003
> He has returned regularly, spending in total more than 12 months in
> the country
> Follow the links below to a selection of his reports over the last
> seven years
> 'This is just a scene from hell' (2003)
> Sorrow for lost cameraman
> A war-torn year
> Wrestling with new freedoms (2004)
> Descent into bombing quagmire (2005)
> Back in 'bad guy territory'
> Life-and-death struggle (2006)
> War shows limits of US power (2008)
> Basra 'will miss British troops' (2009)
> Bombers fail to derail election (2010)
> British soldiers, used to Northern Ireland, pointed out again and
> again that occasional nervous sorties in armoured vehicles were not
> the same as taking control of it.
>
> Their American counterparts took no notice, and the situation grew
> worse.
>
> It took an expert in counter-terrorism, Gen David Petraeus, to turn
> the situation around. Like most successful generals, he had luck on
> his side.
>
> Gen Petraeus understood that insurgencies have a specific life-span,
> and he was fortunate enough to arrive in Baghdad at the time when
> the Iraqi insurgency was starting to wind down.
>
> Sunni Muslims were increasingly sick of the violence that Sunni
> extremists were causing, and he encouraged the growth of Awakening
> Councils which enabled moderate Sunnis to rise up and deal with both
> Baathists and supporters of al-Qaeda.
>
> The supply of people willing to become suicide bombers began to
> dwindle.
>
> Gen Petraeus's tactics turned the tide. At the height of the
> violence something like 100 people were dying each day across the
> country from bombings and shootings.
>
> Now the number killed in political violence has dropped to about 10
> a day - unacceptable in a more peaceable society, but a great relief
> here.
>
> Uncertain future
> Yet many Iraqis fear that with the Americans no longer here in
> force, and the Iraqi army and police still lacking sufficient
> training, the violent extremists on both the Sunni and the Shia
> sides could start fighting again.
>
> Continue reading the main story
> “
> Start Quote
>
> Great military powers run big risks by putting their strength to the
> test against weak-seeming opponents”
>
> Whatever happens here for the next decade, the Americans will get
> the blame - unless of course Iraq becomes peaceful and prosperous,
> in which case no-one will thank them.
>
> That is the usual fate of an occupying force.
>
> Vast numbers of people have died, the overwhelming majority of them
> Iraqi.
>
> Unthinkably large amounts of money have been spent here, and yet
> Iraq has slipped far down the world's rich list.
>
> Has the United States benefited? It is hard to see how.
>
> As the British learned in the Boer War, and Russia learned by
> invading Afghanistan, great military powers run big risks by putting
> their strength to the test against weak-seeming opponents.
>
> America seems to have shrunk as a direct result of its imperial
> adventure in Iraq.
>
> It will have to work very hard to persuade the rest of the world
> that it is strong again.
>