Retired Army general Jack Keane on the surge, and his contributions to it:
Minimal,” “just another set of eyes,” “given more credit than I deserved in all of that.”
Right.
How about this:
The U.S. came “within weeks or months” of defeat in Iraq in 2006, (Keane) says. The consequences of that were “unacceptable” for the region, “not to speak of an institution that I loved.” And what about the military chiefs who thought the extra battalions and extended service tours would be too much of a strain on American forces? “When people talk about stress and strain on a force, the stress and strain that would come from having to live with a humiliating defeat would be quite staggering.”
True.
Update: Few believed how quickly and deeply Iraq settled into a barbaric dystopia. It was harder still to imagine a civil society emerging again from the wreckage. Yet here we are, according to the New York Times‘ Dexter Filkins:
When I left Iraq in the summer of 2006, after living three and a half years here following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, I believed that evil had triumphed, and that it would be many years before it might be stopped. Iraq, filled with so many people living so close together, nurturing dark and unknowable grievances, seemed destined for a ghastly unraveling.
And now, in the late summer of 2008, comes the calm. Violence has dropped by as much as 90 percent. A handful of the five million Iraqis who fled their homes — one-sixth of all Iraqis — are beginning to return. The mornings, once punctuated by the sounds of exploding bombs, are still. Is it possible that the rage, the thirst for revenge, the sectarian furies, have begun to fade? That Iraqis have been exhausted and frightened by what they have seen?
“We are normal people, ordinary people, like people everywhere,” Aziz al-Saiedi said to me the other day, as we sat on a park bench in Sadr City, only recently freed from the grip of the Mahdi Army. The park was just a small patch of bare ground with a couple of swing sets; it didn’t even have a name, yet it was filled to the bursting. “We want what everyone else wants in this world,” he said.
Insha’allah.
It’s nice to know that at least one of the lessons of Vietnam was learned. And everything I’ve heard about GEN Keane says that he is an incredibly humble man so his comment doesn’t surprise me.
Lex, I really believe HF6 is on target about GEN Keane and the lessons learned from Viet Nam. As time goes by, I hope we will learn from MEN like GEN Keane. As we try to look at Iraq, there is a split in our thinking. We went through Persian Gulf I, which was essentially a conventional war in the style of WWII. The irony is this, during Viet Nam, LBJ, who had no military experience, he admitted it. He then went to find the best counsel. The man he found was an active duty 5-star General and former POTUS, Dwight D Eisenhower. 5-Star Generals did not retire, they were active duty until death. Eisenhower’s counsel was fight the war you have, not the one you want. This is one way to help solve difficulty of Presidents not having experience with the Military and issues of National Security. This might stop some of the arrogance we have seen. Now, if we look at Presidents with Military experience, does that make them a better President? Not always, these people tend to lock down everything in stone. There is a concept of flexible strength to help bring together the best ideas to fight the war we have. It takes a very strong man/woman to lead with “flexible strength” in a war.
V/R Grumpy
Greetings:
1) I remember clearly when I first found my father’s World War II medals in the back of his closet. I was emotionally blown away and carried them around with me all day until he finally came home from work. He sat with me for a while, explaining them to me, and then we went in to dinner. I must have talked about them all through the meal, until my father said,
“Denis, me -boy-o, you’re making far too much of this.”
2) The most important support that all soldiers need is the opportunity to be successful in their endeavor. All else pales in comparison.
I was quite surprised at the positive article on the front page of the NY Times yesterday. At least finally someone in the MSM decided to tell the truth.