The way the Iraq War ended was not as it was planned by the United States. This is because, initially, the United States government had planned its intervention in Iraq to bring a government with multiple parties that was based on democracy. The government was to be in good terms with the Republic of Israel and it was supposed to be an enemy of Iran.
It was also supposed to be the operational base of the United States in Middle Easy where the United States government would have great influence ensuring that its oil problems are history. As everybody in the United States now knows, among the aforementioned objectives, none was fulfilled and the enemy in the objectives is the one who profited from the intervention of the U.S. in the Iraq war.
Just like in the War in Vietnam, the United States government had not done a good work in the assessment of the situation in Iraq before it got involved in the war. This led to a number of surprise and deadly attacks on United States troops that made them make change substantial changes to their initial plans. This led to a great problem in integrating unpredictable military action with the overall objectives of the intervention of the United States government in Iraq (Senor, 2005, p. 1).
This was one of the reasons why ultimately, the objectives that the United States government had as it intervened in the situation in Iraq were not met. Instead of fighting an objective war, the U.S. military, following an increase in the number of surprise attacks started to fight the kind of fight meant to protect their lives. This led to the wastage of taxpayer money and the sacrifice of numerous lives for nothing.
The plan by the United States to have achieved its objectives by June 2009 was among the things that brought curiosity to U.S citizens about the Iraq issue. Since nothing had been accomplished in the planned time, the United States military started buying time in Iraq long after June 2009.
They were even being forced by Iraq military to leave after the elections but they were still adamant. They eventually left Iraq in a manner that appeared as if they had been forced to leave (Lacey, 2003, p. 1). This is a strong indication that the war was lost and it did not end like it was supposed to. Thus another reason for the turn of events at the end of the war was the lack of a well planned timeline for the operations in Iraq.
It is common knowledge that the involvement of the United States in the Iraq war was a waste of resources, lives, time and reputation. This is because the main objectives set to be achieved at the end of the war were not achieved. The United States government therefore failed to get the influence it desired over the Middle East and the main enemy, Iran benefited from the war (Senor, 2005, p. 1).
The main reason for the stated turn of events was improper planning and poor analysis of the situation in Iraq before involvement of the United States. Due to the many aspects of the Iraq War that are similar to the war in Vietnam, the United States government should ensure that it plans properly before going to war.
Bibliography
Lacey, Jim. (2003). Nothing went according to plan. TIME, April,
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,443808,00.html.
Senor, Dan. (2005). Has America Failed in Iraq. Slate. July, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/07/new-rights-are-not-easily-reversible.html.