Military operations in Iraq continue apace, but the big picture there is less clear than ever before. How has the transfer of sovereignty affected the shape and progress of the counterinsurgency campaign? Does the end of the military offensive against Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr in Najaf represent a success for coalition forces or a defeat? How are the tensions inherent between politicians and generals in any wartime democracy affecting the George W. Bush administration’s prosecution of the war? What "lessons learned" should the Pentagon draw from its experience in Iraq about defense transformation and the future of warfare? Is the United States closer to victory today than six months ago?

These and other questions will be the subject of an AEI defense policy briefing. Participants include Eliot A. Cohen, professor and director of the strategic studies program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS); General Jack Keane, U.S. Army (retired), who served as chief of staff of the U.S. Army until last year; defense analyst Colonel Robert Killebrew, U.S. Army (retired); and Michael O’Hanlon, Sydney Stein Jr. Chair in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. AEI resident fellow Thomas Donnelly will open the discussion with a presentation of the findings of his recent monograph study, Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment (AEI Press, July 2004).