21 Days to Baghdad

21 Days to Baghdad chronicles the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division during the 2003 siege of Baghdad and its subsequent nation-building mission in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Upon arrival in Baghdad in early April 2003, the 3rd Infantry Division began a complex security mission that required the soldiers and their commanders to convince Iraqi citizens that the U.S. was there to help them. At the same time, they continued fighting Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guard, paramilitary forces, and terrorists. The "front lines" were everywhere in the city, with battle space encompassing hospitals, mosques, and schools where Iraqi troops stationed themselves to avoid American fire.

U.S. soldiers who had fought in violent desert conflicts for three weeks on the way to Baghdad now had to shift their thinking and actions to conduct humanitarian assistance operations for Iraqi citizens whose homes, businesses, and families were destroyed by the fighting. They also had to remain alert to the random violence typical of urban warfare.

At the centre of the story is General Buford “Buff” Blount, the U.S. Army two-star general who led the 3rd Infantry Division from its training base in Kuwait to capture Baghdad and dismantle the government of Saddam Hussein. Blount’s commitment to understanding local viewpoints shaped his attitude towards Baghdad and how he would instruct his troops to interact with Iraqi civilians.

His years working in the Middle East had taught him that deep knowledge of the local scene was essential to a successful security mission, which made it a surprise when the 3rd Infantry Division, having spent months in Baghdad, was recalled from Iraq at the end of 2003. The division was replaced by another Army unit whose members had no knowledge of the local situation, no language skills, and no cultural understanding of Iraqi attitudes and concerns. President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld did not view peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance as worthwhile uses of a conventional combat force like the 3rd Infantry Division. To them, the division had accomplished its mission of destroying Hussein's government.

The story of Blount and the 3rd Infantry Division takes readers on a winding journey, exploring U.S. diplomatic and military interventions in the Middle East from the late Cold War into the Global War on Terror. It illustrates the extensive reach of the U.S. military, the limitations of nation-building in the aftermath of war, and the tensions between policymakers in Washington, DC, and troops on the ground concerning the purpose and conduct of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.