# 21 Days to Baghdad: General Buford Blount and the 3rd Infantry Division in the Iraq War - Hardcover

by **Heather Marie Stur** (Author)

**An authoritative military history of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Operation _Iraqi Freedom_, describing the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the siege and fall of Baghdad, and the nation-building mission that followed.**

In _21 Days to Baghdad_, historian Dr. Heather Stur describes the commitment of the division to Kuwait, the invasion of Iraq and the three weeks of violent desert conflicts on the way to Baghdad before the siege and battle for the city itself, and the "thunder runs" that saw its fall to U.S. forces. She then details the complex security mission that required the soldiers and their commanders to convince Iraqi citizens that the U.S. was there to help them, while at the same time they continued fighting Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard, paramilitary forces, and terrorists.

This new history is based on exclusive, extensive interviews with General Buford "Buff" Blount, the U.S. Army two-star general who led the 3rd Infantry Division. His years of experience in the Middle East led him to question the recall of his division from Iraq at the end of 2003 and its replacement by a less experienced unit. President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld did not believe that peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance were worthwhile uses of a conventional combat force like the 3rd Infantry Division. The division had destroyed Hussein's government. Mission accomplished, or so Bush and Rumsfeld thought.

_21 Days to Baghdad_ illustrates the long reach of the U.S. military, the limitations of nation building in the wake of war, and the tensions between policymakers in Washington, DC, and troops on the ground over the purpose and conduct of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

### Author Biography

**Dr. Heather Marie Stur** is a professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi and a senior fellow in USM's Dale Center for the Study of War & Society. She is the author of: _Saigon at War: South Vietnam and the Global Sixties_ (Cambridge, 2020), _The U.S. Military and Civil Rights Since World War II_ (ABC-CLIO, 2019), and _Beyond Combat: Women and Gender in the Vietnam War Era_ (Cambridge, 2011). She is also co-editor of _Integrating the U.S. Military: Race, Gender, and Sexuality Since World War II_ (Johns Hopkins, 2017). Dr. Stur's articles and op-eds have been published by the _New York Times,_ the _Washington Post,_ the BBC_,_ the _National Interest_, the _Orange County Register_, _Diplomatic History_, _War & Society_, and other journals and newspapers

**Number of Pages:** 320

**Dimensions:** 1.26 x 9.29 x 5.91 IN

**Publication Date:** September 26, 2023

## Details

- **Price:** 35.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 35.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- 21 Days to Baghdad: General Buford Blount and the 3rd Infantry Division in the Iraq War - Hardcover

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