Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
What always frustrated me about the counterinsurgency effort was the emphasis on reconstruction and building the Iraqi army.
That’s an ultimate goal.
First, control the battlespace. Ensure security. Once you do that, it gets easier to do so many other things. It’s a heck of a lot easier to convince someone to trust you if they aren’t getting blown up for it.
Skippy is against the whole venture, and even veers into the occasional BDS, but I seem to recall that he bemoaned the lack of troops there, once we recognized the insurgency. I can agree with that. I think part of why we didn’t do that was economy of force. We knew we would be there for a while and tried to balance having a large presence v. sustaining the force over a long period of time.
The situation recalls, sadly, that of Abrams in the final years of Viet Nam. The General finally got the strategy right, but the country was not willing to gut it out.
The last hope is that McCain can prevail at home, and give Petraeus the time he needs.
“Your point of view on that question will much depend, I suppose, on what it is you hope for.”
Also depends on the length of one’s view, but one thing is axiomatic: The most vocal pros/cons are the ones most incapable & most unwilling to enter the arena.