Ray Odierno

General Raymond T. Odierno, USA, is the current Commanding General, Multi-National Force—Iraq (MNF-I). He assumed command on September 16, 2008. He previously served as Commanding General, III Corps, from May 2006 to May 2008. As the day-to-day Commander of the MNC-I, he was the operational architect of the Iraq War troop surge of 2007 and is credited with implementing the counterinsurgency strategy that, along with the slightly-earlier rise of the Sunni Awakening militia movement, led to the decrease in violence during his tenure in Iraq from late 2006 to early 2008. Authors of a piece in the neoconservative Weekly Standard argued that his employment of forces to quell violence across Iraq “redefined the operational art of counterinsurgency”. ¹

Early life and education

Career history

General Odierno’s initial tours took him to United States Army Europe and U.S. Seventh Army, Germany, where he served as a Platoon Leader and Survey Officer of the 1st Battalion, 41st Field Artillery, 56th Field Artillery Brigade. He later served as Aide-de-Camp to the Pershing Missile Brigade’s Commanding General. Following completion of the Artillery Officer Advanced Course, General Odierno was assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he commanded Service Battery and Alpha Battery. Subsequently, he served as the Battalion S3 in the 1st Battalion, 73rd Field Artillery. During Operation Desert Storm, General Odierno served as the Executive Officer for the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery, and then the held the same position in Division Artillery, 3rd Armored Division.

His significant staff duties include Arms Control Officer, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Chief of Staff, United States V Corps, United States Army Europe; Assistant Division Commander (Support), U.S. 1st Armored Division; Deputy Commanding General, Task Force Hawk, Albania; Director, Force Management, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, United States Army, Washington, D.C.; and Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C., where he was the primary military advisor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Assignments

Operation Iraqi Freedom

General Odierno is currently serving his third deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Operation Iraqi Freedom I

Odierno commanded the U.S. 4th Infantry Division (4th ID) from October 2001 to June 2004, during which he deployed the division to Operation Iraqi Freedom from March 2003 to April 2004. Originally, the 4th Infantry Division was designated to enter Iraq through Turkey, though diplomatic complications prevented such a maneuver. Eventually, Odierno and the 4th Infantry Division deployed into Iraq from Kuwait, and despite the diplomatic complications, still executed the most rapid deployment of heavy armored forces in history.

The division did not deploy in time to start the invasion but joined it as a follow-on force in April 2003, attacking toward Tikrit and Mosul, and later played a major role in the post-war occupation. Headquartered in the restive Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad, the division was responsible for one of the most violent regions of Iraq, as remaining elements of Saddam Hussein’s regime struggled to regain control. In a major accomplishment late in the deployment, Odierno’s troops captured Saddam Hussein in December 2003.

Odierno’s tenure as 4th ID commander in Iraq and his unit’s actions there have subsequently come under criticism from several sources. Some have been critical of 4th ID’s belligerent stance during their initial entry into Iraq after the ground war had ceased, arguing that the unit’s lack of a ‘hearts and minds’ approach was ineffective in quelling the insurgency.⁴

In his unit’s defense, Odierno and others have argued that enemy activity in the 4th ID’s area of operations was higher than in any other area of the country because of the region’s high concentration of Sunni resistance groups still loyal to Saddam Hussein’s regime. His unit was headquartered in Hussein’s hometown and this environment necessitated a different approach from those of units located in the more peaceful regions in the south and the north of the country. ⁵ ⁶

The Surge 2007-2008

In his second Iraq deployment, Odierno was the commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq from December 2006 to February 2008. In this role, he served as the day-to-day commander of all Coalition Forces in Iraq and was one of the primary architects of the troop “surge” into Baghdad.

Planning for The Surge

Upon Odierno’s arrival to Baghdad in December 2006, General George Casey, then the Multi-National Force- Iraq commander (the senior military leader in Iraq), charged Odierno with the task of breaking the cycle of violence and bringing a measure of stability to the country in order to provide “breathing room” for political progress to solve Iraq’s long-term problems.

Odierno and his team recognized that reducing the violence required securing the population—what he described as “job one”–and stopping “accelerants”, his term for those carrying out the attacks and thus triggering subsequent reprisals. His team recognized that although previous efforts to clear Baghdad of insurgents had met with some success, these gains were temporary because the Coalition lacked sufficient forces to hold the areas, and the challenges involved with securing the population were simply too great for the Iraqi Security Forces at the time. ⁶

Previous strategies had called for minimizing the U.S. presence as much as possible, but Odierno recognized that securing the population was a prerequisite for further progress and that he currently did not have enough troops to accomplish the task. Therefore, he and several others recommended to President Bush that he order a temporary troop increase to help stem the violence. President Bush announced what came to be known as the “Surge” in January of 2007 and ordered 5 additional brigades to Iraq.⁷

Implementing the new strategy

Odierno and his team decided that creating stability in Iraq required more than just greater resources; it required a change in mindset. They determined that they must prioritize the protection of the population, creating safe neighborhoods and markets and allowing Iraqis to go about their daily lives. They also decided that the Coalition needed a more balanced approach in its targeting of extremists, and they convinced the Iraqi Government that Shiite militia groups could no longer be given a “free pass” to commit extra-judicial killings.⁸

As the additional brigades began to arrive in the first months of 2007, the Coalition began moving its forces off large bases and deployed them to live on small outposts in population centers across Iraq, concentrating in and around Baghdad.

Throughout a series of offensives commanded by Odierno, Coalition Forces placed significant emphasis on providing essential services, encouraging local governance, and separating the ‘irreconcilables’ from those willing to make peace with the legitimate government of Iraq.⁹

While planning and conducting these operations, Odierno concentrated efforts to deepen growing alliances with groups of “concerned local citizens” that had agreed to work with Coalition Forces to bring security to their neighborhoods. The movement, known as the “Awakening”, started in Anbar province in 2006 and grew throughout 2007, spreading across much of the country. Later called the “Sons of Iraq”, many of these individuals were former insurgents who had been appalled at the wanton violence and chaos wrought by Al Qaeda in Iraq and had subsequently decided to support government stability efforts. As the U.S.-funded effort spread, more and more Iraqis began to join. Soon groups were mobilizing across the country to quell violence; this represented a marked improvement from late 2006, when extremists were mobilizing for civil war.

The results of the Surge

This comprehensive approach to counterinsurgency – conducting simultaneous, large-scale operations to strike multiple enemy concentrations and bases of support while continually focusing on protecting the populace and reconciling with those willing to make peace with the government – led to dramatic decreases in attacks through Iraq. In December of 2006, Coalition Forces were sustaining more than 1,200 attacks per week, and the civilian death toll for the month was over 3,000. When Odierno and his team finished their tour in February of 2008, civilian casualties were down 70%, and attacks on Coalition Forces had dropped to their lowest levels since 2004. In the Baghdad security districts, specifically, ethno-sectarian attacks and deaths had decreased by 90%. The situation in Iraq had been “utterly transformed”.¹

Command of Multi-National Force-Iraq

General Odierno’s third deployment to Iraq began on September 16, 2008 when he assumed command of Multi-National Force-Iraq. Returning to Iraq less than 7 months after finishing his previous deployment, he is currently the senior military commander in Iraq. He faces the challenge of sustaining the security gains of the past while reducing the Coalition presence and helping the Iraqi government achieve reconciliation and lasting stability.

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