LETTER: General Petraeus' Letter to Soldiers (14 Apr 07) (pdf)
thomaspmbarnett.com
More proof of the Petreaus egomania.
He is telling the troops...Hey you think you have it bad, I have it worse. You think you are doing a lot - I am doing more.
That is leadership??
His comment that it is too early to judge the success of the surge means one thing, the surge has not succeeded so far.
He calls the enemy's attacks spectacular. Durn right they have been spectacular, painfully effective too. Those attacks have proved we cannot even secure and defend the green zone properly, never-mind the country.
He says we have recently detained and brought some insurgents to justice (read that killed them). Well whooppee-do-wah, we have been doing that for over four years. Guess what, their replacements are already inbound from Iran and Syria and elsewhere. And, fully 10% of the Muslim population, 150 million more militants, are eagerly waiting for their opportunity to get into this fight.
We are the dog fighting the war of the flea. Occasionally we scratch at a few fleas, meanwhile the other flea colonies (not under attack) are expanding rapidly and biting us elsewhere. Each flea bite extracts another drop of blood. The loss of each drop is painful to us and strengthening to the fleas. The fleas use the blood to create more fleas.
Using his claws to rake a few fleas off the dog may make Petreaus feel good temporarily. Soon he will learn that as soon as the claw moves elsewhere, the fleas will reestablish the colony he raked off and the new colony will be stronger than the old because it will know it can withstand and recover from the dog's attacks.
In our War of Independence, the British Army was the dog and we were the fleas. The technique worked for us. It also worked for many others before and since. I see nothing in our actions thus far that I think would dissuade the Muslim militant extremists from believing the technique is and will work for them.
We are expending our national treasure (men, equipment, money) at an alarming rate. Presently, that seems to be the only potential driving force that will bring this to a conclusion any time soon. And such a conclusion will be temporary at best.
I apologize if I seem negative. I think I am being realistic.
I've spent the last 45 years studying war. I've spent eleven of those years overseas in war zones and other high risk areas as a participant. I know what a win looks like, and I know what a loss looks like. This one ain't pretty. |
