http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E7D91E31F933A15755C0A9609C8B63
Here’s the link to the NY Times story, FWIW.
I think the salient point of my post here is that we have put our warriors into impossibly difficult circumstances, where the enemy does not wear a uniform, he kills our warriors, our soldiers catch and release him to come back and kill again. My nephew, U.S. Army Infantry, did three combat tours in Iraq, loaded fifty-three dead American comrades from his unit onto trucks for shipment back home for burial - during one tour.
This COIN strategy is doomed to failure, as it was in Viet Nam. Fight the war mercilessly to win it or get out.
Best,
JW
“I’m worried about an opponent who uses nation building and the military in the same sentence.”
-George W. Bush, Nov. 6, 2000