"The army leadership made tremendous mistakes," he said. "The army leadership is responsible for much of the blood that was shed [in Iraq and Afghanistan]."
The military was largely unprepared for the fourth phase of military intervention in Iraq, in which military focus shifted from combat operations to the transfer of power to civilian forces, according to Freedberg. Freedberg leads a project called "Policy at the Sharp End," which collects veterans' accounts of their military experiences for scholarly research.
"The infantry division, which seized Baghdad, says that they had no plan for phase four," Freedberg said.
Many of the current problems in Afghanistan and Iraq stem from the military's inability to conduct reconstruction efforts while simultaneously fighting guerillas, Freedberg said. The American military is adept at fighting conventional wars but has not been able to engage in guerilla warfare effectively, according to Freedberg.
"Guerilla forces can actually fight very hard against powerful conventional forces," he said.
Freedberg cited the use of anti-aircraft missiles, which are relatively inexpensive, as an example of how guerillas have effectively fought conventional U.S. military forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
To fight effectively in both countries, the United States must be able to fight a hybrid war in which the military can draw upon guerilla and conventional warfare tactics, Freedberg said. Conventional tactics, which constitute the sporadic, speedy land and air strikes, were effective in the initial stages of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but the military must now develop its skills in guerilla warfare tactics, Freedberg said.
Freedberg stressed that despite the military's mistakes in these two wars, "the Army has made remarkable adaptations." At the grassroots level, troops have developed innovative tactics and learned how to respond to the unique conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Freedberg.
"The actual players on the field are the small units leading the individual soldiers," he said.
In previous wars, American generals' strategies dominated combat tactics, but now the front-line soldiers are making decisions about how to engage the enemy, according to Freedberg. Combat troops have developed innovative counterinsurgency tactics to give themselves the advantage in combat, Freedberg said.
Freedberg cited the example of a soldier who conducted a military sweep along an entire street to covertly visit the house of an informant to protect his identity. Soldiers have also started sharing information about allies among tribal leaders in the absence of any military database.
Freedberg discussed the changing demographics of the military as key to understanding how to best prepare the military for future conflicts.
Due to the lengths of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the proportion of combat troops within the army has increased significantly. The higher number of combat troops, along with the fact that the majority of soldiers are performing multiple tours of duty, has contributed to high incidences of mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder among troops, Freedberg said.
"One in six people in a combat unit will not be eligible to deploy [because of mental health issues]," Freedberg said. "This is not going to end when we get our troops out of Afghanistan, if we ever do."
Freedberg said that the U.S. government lacks the resources to keep up with the number of cases of mental illness that have resulted from the two wars.
Americans are largely disconnected from the realities of U.S. soldiers, he said.
"All of this is happening in relative isolation of us," Freedberg said. "Ninety-nine percent of Americans are not part of the army."
The 21 zip codes with the highest army enlistment rates are all in close proximity to military bases, which has compounded the isolation of the military from the civilian population, Freedberg said.
"We are seeing the inkling of a hereditary military class," Freedberg said. "This is good for the army as an instrument of foreign policy, but I'm not sure this is good for the republic."
