Episode 58 of Mil History Talk examines Operation Iraqi Freedom through the lens of Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO). In March 2003, the United States military demonstrated synchronized maneuver across land, air, maritime, space, and special operations domains at a level rarely seen in modern warfare. Corps-level advances, precision strike, ISR fusion, and space-enabled command and control revealed operational mastery. Yet embedded within that success were assumptions about uncontested domains and rapid political collapse that would shape the next decade. As the conflict shifted into counterinsurgency, training priorities, force structure, and modernization paths bent toward stabilization operations, temporarily attenuating certain high-end warfighting competencies. This episode explores the paradox of OIF: a peak demonstration of joint excellence that simultaneously initiated a doctrinal detour. What did Iraq strengthen? What did it weaken? And what lessons endure for modern multi-domain conflict?

For a deeper discussion of this topic see the article on substack: Operation Iraqi Freedom's Effects on Joint All Domain Operations (JADO)