How the Iraq war bent America’s army out of shape

THE IRAQ war began on March 21st 2003, when Baghdad’s night sky lit up with American guided bombs and tracer fire. “This will be a campaign unlike any other in history,” promised General Tommy Franks, the cigar-chomping commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), “a campaign characterised by shock, by surprise…and by the application of overwhelming force.” America’s air-and-ground assault quickly overwhelmed Iraq’s hapless armed forces. But in the years that followed, it overwhelmed the American military, too, leaving it bent out of shape for the accelerating competition with China.