{"product_id":"2940152612042","title":"Dysfunction and Decline: Lessons Learned From Inside Al-Qaida in Iraq: Harmony Project - ISIS, Declassified Documents, Indoctrination in Combat Environments, Sunni Rejection, Secular Resistance","description":"\u003cp\u003eProfessionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction, this book is based in part on newly declassified documents drawn from the Department of Defense's Harmony database.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAl-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) is a shadow of its former self, primarily because broad sectors of Iraq's Sunni population rejected it after more than three years of active and tacit cooperation. Anger over AQI's brutal radicalism infused the Sunni backlash against jihadists, but AQI also made two fundamental strategic overreaches that exacerbated its alienation from Sunnis in Iraq. First, it incited a sectarian backlash from Iraqi Shi'a without the means to defend Iraq's Sunnis from the onslaught it provoked. Second, AQI created a formal political entity, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), to dominate Iraq after a U.S. withdrawal without adequate support from Iraq's Sunni population.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese strategic missteps angered and frightened Sunni tribesmen, but the mechanisms of AQI's decline were even more mundane. Pressure from U.S. and Iraqi forces compounded the group's endemic operational weaknesses to create a self-reinforcing cycle of command and control failure, tactical mistakes and logistical disconnect that hastened the group's descent into simple thuggery, which reinforced AQI's alienation from local populations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring AQI's decline, one of its commanders produced a detailed \"lessons learned\" document to capture the mistakes AQI made in Iraq. The most important were:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFailure to understand the Iraqi people,\u003cbr\u003eUse of unreliable smugglers in Syria,\u003cbr\u003eUnrealistic expectations of foreign fighters created by al-Qa'ida propaganda,\u003cbr\u003ePoor cooperation between Emirs,\u003cbr\u003eTension between foreign fighters and Iraqi members of AQI,\u003cbr\u003eSuicide bombers reneging,\u003cbr\u003eCommand structure that diluted authority,\u003cbr\u003eBureaucratic stovepiping, and\u003cbr\u003ePoor use of financial resources.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Progressive Management","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47149699891440,"sku":"2940152612042","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940152612042_p0.jpg?v=1764024324","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940152612042","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}