Paul F. Hughes

Retireed U.S. Army Colonel Paul F. Hughes "serves as an Army Senior Military Fellow in the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University.

"Colonel Paul Hughes, Army Senior Military Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, has worked in Iraq over the past year, both within LTG Jay Garner's (Ret.) Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) and later under Amb. Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)." March 25, 2004

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War in Iraq

 * "Army Col. Paul Hughes, who last year was the first director of strategic planning for the U.S. occupation authority in Baghdad, said he agrees with [the view that we are losing strategically] and noted that a pattern of winning battles while losing a war characterized the U.S. failure in Vietnam. 'Unless we ensure that we have coherency in our policy, we will lose strategically,' he said in an interview Friday [May 7, 2004].


 * "'I lost my brother in Vietnam,' added Hughes, a veteran Army strategist who is involved in formulating Iraq policy. 'I promised myself, when I came on active duty, that I would do everything in my power to prevent that [sort of strategic loss] from happening again. Here I am, 30 years later, thinking we will win every fight and lose the war, because we don't understand the war we're in.'"

See Operation Iraqi Freedom: Military and Political Dissent.

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"As an Army Senior military fellow, COL Hughes provides the Institute with his functional expertise in political-military affairs, operations other than war, conflict management, and domestic preparedness (e.g., chemical/bio defense and disaster readiness). Prior to assuming his new position, he served as the chief of the National Security Policy Division, Headquarters, Department of the Army where he developed policy guidance for the Army in the areas of arms control, chemical and biological weapons defense, chemical weapons demilitarization, nuclear strategy, space operations, missile defense, information operations, and emerging non-traditional security issues. During his more than 27 years of service, COL Hughes has served in a variety of command and staff assignments in tactical, operational and strategic level organizations.

"COL Hughes attended Colorado State University and graduated as the Distinguished Military Graduate in 1975 with a BA in Sociology. He is a graduate of the Army Command & General Staff College, the School of Advanced Military Studies, and the Army War College. He holds two Master of Military Arts & Sciences degrees with concentrations in Force Development & Training and in Theater Operations. His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Meritorious Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and several campaign and service ribbons."