It appears Pearle is no longer singing pearls of wisdom. Just his statement "This brings me to my second lesson: In aligning our political and military strategy, we should make sure we have the support of a significant segment of the local population.", makes me believe I no longer value his pearls of wisdom.
How the hell can one obtain a concensous to attack a country if you cannot even talk to the population beforehand. Is he indicating that we should somehow enter a country we plan to attacked, then set up polling places so that we can find if a majority of that nations population want us to come in and attacked them? Unless I do not understand what he said in #2, it appears he is simply flapping off. He like many others are now voicing opinions that seem to not dovetail with what they original urged the POTUS to do. Pearle had plenty of input to offer the administration prior to the invasion. Is he indicating that he was not amoung those that had their acts together?
All he's saying is that on the ground intelligence stunk. And he's right. Because the 'Rats spent years decimating our intelligence apparatus all over the world. But you'll NEVER hear that from the MSM. The problem is you don't hear it from the feckless Republicans either.