Sorry Rush, Counter Insurgency is as much politics as war. Steele is dead wrong about Iraq. It is EXACTLY the wrong answer to try and fight a Counter Insugerency with the same tactics as Total War.
We should be fighting islam, not innsurgency.
von Clauswitz argues that war is politics through another means. I'm not certain we don't need a little of both. For example, the terrorists don't hesitate to use the victims' families as hostages...I don't think it's unreasonable for our soldiers (or at least our proxies in the Iraqi military) to do the same as much as that gets howls from strict Geneva Convention observers. The terrorists aren't following the rules. I don't think we can either. I think that's Steele's (and Rush's) point.