General Odierno was very clear and he had said, look, the Army never really commissioned a true assessment of the Vietnam War.

And as you indicated to us, we spent the first couple years of the Iraq war re-learning the

same lessons of the Vietnam War, paying in blood and treasure.

It was about time that the United States Army, in particular, just look at the first kind

of draft of history, do a first review of assessing the

Iraq War.

Hey, and welcome back to the Modern War Institute podcast.

I'm John Amble, editorial director at MWI, and in the episode you're about to hear, MWI's

Major Jake Morali talks to retired Colonel Frank Subcheck.

He, along with retired Colonel Joel Rayburn, authored the Army's 2-volume, 1,300-page study of the Iraq War.

They began work on it in 2013 and completed it in 2016, but it was only finally released earlier this year.

As you'll hear in this conversation, not only does he explain why it's 2016, but it was only finally released earlier this year. As you'll hear in this conversation,

not only does he explain why it's important that the Army conducted a study like this,

he also explains some of the reasons for its delay and really why there was actually some opposition to the project within the Army. He also reflects on some of the major conclusions

they drew from all of the research

they conducted. The study is an important piece of self-reflection for the army, and the

conversation, as you'll hear, is remarkably frank. Before we get to it, though, just a couple

quick notes. First, if you're listening to the podcast soon after we publish it, we want to put

the word out that MWI is currently accepting applications for our fellows and scholars programs.

If you're interested in applying, you can find the full details on the MWI website at MWI.usma.edu.

And second, as always, what you hear in this episode are the views of the participants and don't represent those of West Point, the Army, or any other agency of the U.S. government. All right, let's get to the conversation.

Sir, thank you for taking the time to come and sit down and talk to us today. I appreciate

...