Comprehensive approach

« The war is over. Mission accomplished! ».

This is what US President Georges W Bush told the world from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1st 2003. This was about six weeks after the start of the invasion of Iraq on March 20th. Indeed major combat operations had ended on May 1st, but the military operations in Iraq were only about to begin phase two of the campaign plan: military occupation, or better said, stabilization. The initial coalition of the USA (148000 troops), the UK (45000), Australia (2000) and Poland (200) was only a small size force compared to what would have been necessary to occupy the country starting from May 1st. Figures of about 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 troops and according resources, about ten times the size of the invasion force, would have been necessary to secure and occupy the entire country.
It is very easy for western modern military forces to combat any enemy in a “conventional war” in which two organized military forces oppose. A USA led coalition could never been beaten by any other force. The difficult part of the operation is stabilization; combat modes within build up areas against an undefined and invisible enemy using asymmetrical warfare and guerilla tactics.

This stabilization phase of the coalition campaign plan is somehow still ongoing. Stabilization is a generic term that encompasses both military and civilian strategies. The military knows that its role in a stabilization operation is to provide security in order to allow other actors (IO, GO, NGO, civilian companies,...) to rebuild the country emerging from a crisis situation, in this case war.
The military is a facilitator for a serial of other actors and specialists that will be engaged in the post-conflict reconstruction of a country. Those specialists should work in close cooperation with the military and coordinate their actions in order to obtain an optimal effect on both security and reconstruction.