Jeremy Bash: One Lesson from Iraq Is Boots on the Ground and Regime Change Can’t Be Done Easily

EXCERPT:

BASH: “Well, look, I think one lesson from Iraq is boots on the ground and regime change can't be done easily because you've got institutions in a country that won't run themselves. And so it kind of falls to the occupying power to rebuild that nation, sort of the Colin Powell Pottery Barn Rule, you break it, you buy it. But we should also overlearn lessons from the Iraq experience in which there are standoff weapons, there are capabilities that don't involve boots on the ground, that don't involve regime change, that can be the precise use of effective military power to get strategic advantage.”