Word: iraq
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Hillen estimates that it would take as many as 340,000 U.S. troops six months to assemble and then invade and take over Iraq. They'd be there for as long as five years as a post-Saddam government got on its feet. Final cost: more than $50 billion and at least 1,000 dead Americans. And one more thing: while this huge undertaking might remove Saddam from power, there's no guarantee that he wouldn't survive and become a vengeful and fugitive Muslim hero...
Ahmed Allawi, an AK-47 rifle slung over his shoulder, crouched in a hilltop cemetery in northern Iraq on a chilly night in March 1995. He and other guerrillas were launching their first armed assault on the Iraqi army since the formation of the opposition Iraqi National Congress three years earlier...
Their aim: overthrow Saddam Hussein. "We thought we were writing the history of Iraq," recalls Allawi, who bristled with adrenaline as the fighters overran three Iraqi positions. "But what happened later showed we were totally wrong...
What happened later should make Washington pause before getting too deeply entangled again with Iraq's opposition. Attempts by U.S. officials to foment an anti-Saddam revolution have been case studies in miscommunication, danger and betrayal. They have also been examples of how half hearted support by the U.S. has, in some respects, been even worse than no support at all. Allawi's group, for instance, was nearly wiped out less than 18 months after that glorious hilltop night, when Saddam overran its camps with a tank offensive. Up to 2,000 fighters were captured and executed, leaving the survivors...
...fact, the history of U.S. involvement with these groups is filled with similar tragedies. Part of the problem is that in the miles between Iraq and Washington, there is ample space for manipulation. Rebel leaders inflate U.S. support to attract followers. CIA officers move far beyond what politicians in Washington are willing to support. And politicians are not ready to match their rhetoric with military muscle...