One only has to look at Yon’s Rub#3 comments to see that even his supporters are raising an eyebrow at his recent shenanigans. An unprecendented amount of commenters made reference to the fact that bureaucracy is an undeniable fact of life in the military and that Yon should be taking what amounts to some good advice.

Yon hits bottom when he writes:

//snip//
Speaking of comments on the website, check out this one, from a writer who teases ever so coyly about his ?

One only has to look at Yon’s Rub#3 comments to see that even his supporters are raising an eyebrow at his recent shenanigans. An unprecendented amount of commenters made reference to the fact that bureaucracy is an undeniable fact of life in the military and that Yon should be taking what amounts to some good advice.

Yon hits bottom when he writes:

//snip//
Speaking of comments on the website, check out this one, from a writer who teases ever so coyly about his “real” identity:

Yon then makes Zig’s point for him:
//snip//
When someone in a position to help reaches out and tries to open up a line of communication, perhaps you should reply directly rather than using the fact that they reached out to you as a point of irony in one of your articles,

Which is of course, exactly what Yon is doing yet again. “look at me, people are trying to help me…but I don’t want their help, I just want to make the story about me”

He’s in danger of making himself the story, which is never a good thing.

I’ll be at the Milbloggers conference if anyone wants to continue this over a beer.

–Kosovodad

Julius Ceasar didn’t have a PAO Corps and the history of his victory came only from his own quill..

When you start attempting to manage “news”- MSM, Yon or anybody- you’re in trouble. You couldn’t create a new PAO group if you threw all the resources at it you had. It’ll never work.

All we can do is win or at least give it our best shot.

If I had my way I would throw ‘em all out (US and foreign correspondents) and commandeer all the bandwidth and jam anything else. Let the Iraqis report the news. I know that will never happen but I would rather read Petraeus’s Chronicles AFTER we & they are victorious. All this crap sounds Madison Ave to me, but then, I ain’t sophisticated.

re- “We really weren?

Julius Ceasar didn’t have a PAO Corps and the history of his victory came only from his own quill..

When you start attempting to manage “news”- MSM, Yon or anybody- you’re in trouble. You couldn’t create a new PAO group if you threw all the resources at it you had. It’ll never work.

All we can do is win or at least give it our best shot.

If I had my way I would throw ‘em all out (US and foreign correspondents) and commandeer all the bandwidth and jam anything else. Let the Iraqis report the news. I know that will never happen but I would rather read Petraeus’s Chronicles AFTER we & they are victorious. All this crap sounds Madison Ave to me, but then, I ain’t sophisticated.

re- “We really weren’t listening to the population we’ve been trying to stabilize. In poll after poll, they told us their chief concern was security – we thought we could kill our way to security, when what it looks like what it’s really going to take is bedding down in the ville, being out there when the lights go down.”

That must be your inside info but I don’t think that is the whole answer or even part of one. That is only a tactic..Plus, neighborhood policing (where I think you are going) ain’t an Army MET. As far as COIN and training militias- tell me that I’m wrong please- haven’t we (even Petraus in his last tour) been doing that for the last 2.5 years?

re killing our way to security: It appears to me that security to them, Sunni, Shia, Kurd, Mahdi Army, Insurgent or government, is knowing that the tribe back home is safe while you are out fulfilling that old Iraqi Hammarabi’s rule- “Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth”. Until that runs its course, “managing” the sectarian killing is appropriate.. That may take a while, perhaps a whole generation of Iraqis. The only exception being where true Jihadists (especially imports) mass- those must be destroyed by us.

The counter-insurgency methods deemed successful from a historical perspective we just ain’t got the stomach for..so it’ll be attrition/run it’s course sectarian killing (99% Iraqi) or cut n’run for us. Which history tells us means a broader Sunni-Shia fight OVER Iraq. Vacums are always filled by the strong and most often Evil- ex- Pol Pot, Rwanda, Vietnam…..

b2