|
|||||
Good storyTerrible headline: Among Top Officials, ‘Surge’ Has Sparked Dissent, Infighting
Well, it’s good that we’re planning for withdrawal – we plan for everything else, and if Congress does adopt the Osama plan for Iraq we at least owe our troops an orderly But when Don Rumsfeld was SECDEF, the thrust of Beltway criticism was that the administration was drinking its own bathwater on Iraq, refusing to listen to alternative points of view and insisting that there was light at the end of the tunnel. Now that the President has appointed a very different personality to serve as SECDEF in Robert Gates, a Navy four-star admiral to serve as CENTCOM commander for the first time in history and appointed as a war czar at home a retired 3-star army officer who had criticized the surge, the chattering class seem surprised to learn that there the president is hearing differing opinions. This isn’t a bug – it’s a feature. CENTCOM is rightly concerned about the larger picture that he’s responsible for – Iraq of course, but also Iran, and the Horn of Africa. The army Chief of Staff is concerned about the overall state of the army. General Petraeus is trying to win the war that he’s been handed, and appears to having some success – even SECDEF seems to be pleasantly surprised with the surge’s military success, and holds out hopes for political accomodation:
Three things are not in question: 1) There is no strategically sensible, morally acceptable way to quickly withdraw American forces from Iraq. 2) The surge cannot last forever in any case. Units that had been extended are already beginning to rotate home. Most estimates state that, without further extensions, the force will settle back to the previous level of around 140,000 personnel next spring. 3) The surge is enjoying uneven success. That’s better than slow failure, and a reason for hope. Time is not on our side, but when the alternative is failure we should not be in a hurry to seize that alternative. Nor should we be so concerned about our ability to fight future, theoretical wars that we damage our chances to carve a victory out in the fight we’re actually in. General Petraeus should be given his time. |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2009 Neptunus Lex - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
Hot Mic