Posted on 05/08/2008 5:10:02 PM PDT by The_Republican
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Kaplan, in a recent publication, the US National Defense University described the Iraq War as a "major debacle." According to the latest statistics, 500 insurgent attacks are still taking place each week. Still, you are convinced that there is a "learning curve" for the US Army in Iraq. What exactly has been learned?
Kaplan: One attack is one too many. But a while ago there were 500 attacks a day. So empirically, the situation has improved -- whether measured in terms of Iraqi cilivans killed or American soldiers attacked, insurgents captured or the number of intelligence tip-offs. The political situation, admittedly, remains a disaster. These tactical improvements are not a sufficient condition for true progress, but a necessary one. They came about because the American operational concept has shifted 180 degrees.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: How exactly?
Kaplan: We've gone from essentially fighting World War II, with big unit sweeps, liberal expenditure of firepower and alienation of the population to trying to secure and protect the population and engage in tribal diplomacy. Al-Qaida has also overplayed its hand with the tribes. These days, the US military is much closer to the population and one result is a huge spike in intelligence. This strategic reversal was brought about by General David Petraeus. However, having wasted four years making things worse, naturally the American public is exhausted. So this new strategy, as fruitful as it is, will not be given time to work.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Was the increase in US troops at the start of 2007 also partially responsible for the progress you describe?
Kaplan: This is the subject of fierce debate in the US -- because to ascribe progress to the "surge" means to say that George W. Bush did something right...................................................................................................................................................................................................
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Huma.
My point exactly.
No Baghdad, No Caliphate, No Ummah.
Is this guy a professional moron, or is it just a hobby?
Exhausted, how? Tired of the endless sacrifices the American public has had to make? The rationing, the shortages, what exactly?
The American public has been subjected to a wave of propagandizing that is as obvious and endless and pervasive as it is dishonest and wrong-headed. That is all. They've been told for 4 years that they are losing, that its a disaster, that its never going to work. The communications media have created their own reality where the war is concerned, and they have also created their own reality where the American public is concerned.
The anti-war left owns the communications media both here and abroad. They own the only microphone in town (don't ask me why it is, or why we allow that miserable state of affairs to stand, but there it is). They can say anything they want about the war, and who is going to answer them? They can say anything they want about the opinions of the American public, and who is going to tell them they are wrong?
Step one to winning the war of ideas is to communicate your ideas. To do that you've got to get your own microphone, your own printing press, your own stage. Borrowing your enemy's mic and then complaining that he's biased is a recipe for losing and losing big, year after year, decade after decade. Until we solve this problem we are not even players, we're just the noise at the edge of the frequency. You can't persuade anyone if they can't even hear you.
“Kaplan: This is the subject of fierce debate in the US — because to ascribe progress to the “surge” means to say that George W. Bush did something right...”
Ironic, because Bush had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing this, the suggestion of the Iraqi Study Group.
After 9/11, somebody needed their ass kicked.
Saddam was wearing a "kick me" sign.
Everything else was a mistake.
Can someone PLEASE post a picture of Saddam with a noose around his neck?
I'm deep that way ;-)
I don’t know anything about this author but he obviously knows nothing but leftist politics. Someone should read him thr Verses of the Sword.
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