Posted on 04/09/2008 4:06:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
It's a shame Sen. Carl Levin failed to take the time to call public attention to Gen. David Petraeus' "Anaconda Strategy" chart. Petraeus briefly referred to the chart during his initial testimony this week before Levin's Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Anaconda Chart is a complex graphic that depicts an intricate, multi-dimensional war. It's tough to describe even with a copy in front of you. However, the strategic concept behind Petraeus' chart (titled "Anaconda Strategy versus al-Qaida in Iraq") is dirt simple: Squeeze and keep squeezing.
A commercial artist would certainly describe the chart as "too busy," but war isn't an exercise in aesthetics. The Anaconda Strategy identifies six routes of attack on al-Qaida in Iraq: 1) Kinetics (which includes combat); 2) Politics (which includes countering ethno-sectarian pressures and Iraqi political reconciliation); 3) Intelligence (operations from air recon to intel assessment); 4) Detainee Ops (which includes counter-insurgency in detention facilities); 5) Non-Kinetics (education, jobs programs); and 6) Interagency.
Anaconda's Interagency is a hodge-podge and a kludge of a category, including diplomacy, information operations and -- an interesting specificity -- engagement with Syria.
On the chart, these six broad routes become operations that converge upon and compress al-Qaida's command and control capabilities, finances, ideological appeal, safe havens, weapons and popular support.
The U.S. military uses the acronym DIME as verbal coin for "the elements of power": Diplomatic, Information, Military and Economic. Petraeus' Anaconda Chart is DIME in big dollars.
Since Petraeus' and Ambassador Ryan Crocker's September 2007 testimony, "the Anaconda" (the incremental synergy of this complex war-fighting and nation-building process) has dramatically squeezed al-Qaida. No, it hasn't crushed it -- but the organization is physically damaged. Moreover, with the "Sunni Awakening" and similar programs, al-Qaida has suffered extraordinary political and information defeats as Sunnis publicly turned on the jihadis.
Is this victory in Iraq? No. But it suggests we've won a major battle with potentially global significance, the kind that in the long term squeezes al-Qaida's ideological appeal in all corners of the planet.
Shia gangs and Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Militia also receive the same multidimensional squeeze. Remember, last week the herd-media quickly declared the Iraqi Army's recent counter-militia operations in Basra, east Baghdad and southern Iraq a huge failure, "the Basra Blunder" according to one headline. Both Petreus and Crocker were pestered with questions about the Iraqi Army's operational mistakes and inadequacies.
Iraqi Sunni Arab and Kurd political reactions to the attacks on the Shia militias has proven to be overwhelmingly positive, however. Iraq has progressed to the point where the political context is the dominant context and a democratic Shia-led government taking down Shia gangs was a step toward national reconciliation among ethno-sectarian groups.
Is this a surprise? Let's go to the chart: Petraeus' Anaconda chart demonstrates that the "political route of attack" can be as lethal as a kinetic (combat) operation -- perhaps more so if the goal is bringing the marginalized and antagonized into a democratic political process. In fact, in Iraq the political context is now the dominant context.
In the case of Basra and east Baghdad, at some point the Iraqi Army had to confront the Shia gangs. No, the fight wasn't perfect, but war is not the realm of perfect. War is the realm of "friction," as Clausewitz wrote, "the suck" in current lingo. The Iraqi Army and Iraqi government planned and executed the operation themselves. Failure? Don't think so. This is progress. As time passes, it is increasingly clear the Iraqi Army did a far better job than the Shia gangsters.
But we all know why the complex chart gets ignored and successes are glasses half empty: A presidential election campaign is on, and the Democratic Party has bet its soul on defeat.
"Hear no progress in Iraq, see no progress in Iraq, but most of all speak of no progress in Iraq." Thus Sen. Joe Lieberman, a member of the Armed Service Committee, deftly summed the last two years of Democratic Party posturing as well as the Democrats' talking points in the latest hearings.
Lieberman's maverick pal, Senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain, spoke more bluntly, "Congress should not choose to lose in Iraq, but we should choose to succeed."
Thanks
They are hard to accept and don't fit their template.
"The war is lost", said senator, demonRAT dingy harry.
Petraeus did an exceptional job yesterday. I was really impressed by his control over his emotions, in his answers, in his tone, in his facial/physicial control. He was completely calm.
He was also terribly convincing, even when he was attacked by REPUBLICAN Voinovich, and democrats, Levin, Clinton, Kennedy, Feingold, and gang.
Lieberman and McCain were the ones who truly stood and were counted. The other republicans were positive, but basically gave Petraeus the opportunity to expand his responses.
Crocker was right on target all day. I think he intentionally uses “uhhhhh” about 3 times every few words to change the direction of a question.
As I’m sure most know, Anaconda was the Union’s strategy/ master plan to encircle, cut off, and ultimately defang the confedaracy way back when. Just sayin’.
They study the War Between the States at West Point ...
Thanks. Very convincing...
Does anyone have a link to the original testimony of Petraeus? I missed it yesterday. Thanks.
the Democratic Party has bet its soul on defeat.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The democRats and their comrades in the Traitor Media are trying to throw this war away, like they threw away the Vietnam war. They're trying to throw the Iraqis to the wolves the way they threw the Vietnamese to the wolves. They're PROUD of the communist victory in Vietnam ... It was, in effect, their victory as well.
Townhall mis-spelled the good general’s name in the headline and failed to put the letter s after the apostrophe.
You must have missed Collins, R from Maine. She did the Dems proud, right down to the sneer on her face. A real _itch.
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