Running the War in Iraq

12 August 2008

Major General Jim Molan

The war in Iraq is as awful as any war, but that is never an excuse to wage it illegally or immorally. The only thing that will make the Iraq war worse than it is will be to ‘lose’. Major General Jim Molan's involvement was in the second year of the war – by then it was a vastly different war from the invasion. There has never been just one ‘Iraq War’. Since 2003 there have been different conflicts in different places at different times. Some have been won, and some others lost. The trends may be more positive now. The most important thing about conflict, according to Jim Molan, is that you must know what you believe in and you must practise it on the ground. He states that we are about the rule of law and we must act legally. Democratic societies cannot sustain a long, costly war unless they are convinced it is a just war.

Major General Molan's book, Running the War in Iraq, is a story of how a 21st century war is run, and the part that an Australian general played in it. Major General Molan gives a stark, insider’s account of modern warfare and all it entails — the ghastly body count, the complex decisions which will mean life or death, the divide between political masters and foot soldiers — and the small, hard-won triumphs.

Broad Topics: Arts and Social Sciences

Sub-topics: Policy & Political Science

Areas:

Major General Jim Molan has served in the Australian Army for over 40 years, 13 of them as a general. He has accompanied five countries down their road to democracy: Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, East Timor, Solomon Islands and Iraq. For a year in Iraq he ran day to day operations for the entire Coalition and Iraqi forces, managing 300,000 troops. Among his many tasks, he would oversee the first democratic elections in Iraq. It would prove the most formidable challenge of his 40-year career.