thank god
There are some tremendously smart, thoughtful, serious officers in the army, and they are thinking carefully about the work they're doing in Iraq. I don't agree with every word, here, but some of his insight into the institutional habits of the army is great. Even better is the fact that he's simply willing and able to think critically about the army -- and that he has a solid foundation of knowledge that helps him to do so. There's some exceptional talent in the officer corps, which is not always readily apparent.
posted by Chris Bray @ 4:57 AM
1 Comments:
Good link, thanks. Good writing and good thinking about the importance of strategy. But, I think that he puts too little emphasis on the Iraqi political piece. He talks about Sunni participation in elections as if it is an end in itself. But the reason Sunni participation in elections was so important was so that they would have a stake in the government and would feel that they can exert some control over their fate through non-violent means. If they instead end up marginalized (19% in Baghdad?!), the government will have less legitimacy rather than more. And lots of well-armed Iraqi troops aren't a good thing if they're misused. Think South Vietnam but with the equivalent of three or more corrupt governments controlling the ARVN instead of one at a time. If the Iraqi government is a sham the best we could possibly do, even if the US Army performs flawlessly, is Algeria under the French.
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