“Second, as a retired senior Naval Officer who spent a lot of time on military planning staffs and at war colleges...”
Judging by the way you conduct yourself, with your silly personal attacks and your ‘HAH!’ rebuttals, I’ll assume you are a 19 year old Berkley student who is suffering from BDS. You could always go to the DU where they would be more than happy to pretend to believe your status.
"You mean there was no casulty-free plan. No such plan exists in an operation of this magnitude. Regarding ‘clear estimate of the enemy’, the enemy consists of al-qaeda and Iranian backed terrorists from all over the world. Demanding a clear estimate of non-conventional foes is unrealistic.
First, you start by trying to put unuttered words in my mouth. Second, you follow with irresponsible nonsense, that amounts to nothing more than lashing out at an enemy you appear to claim we can neither see nor count nor understand. Third, in showing us how counterinsurgency is done right, Petraes is showing us just how wrong you and those you are trying to defend are.
Fourth, you simply fail to address the central point, which is that you are trying to defend an administration that is in trouble because it cannot articulate what it is that it is trying to accomplish in a manner that can convince the average person that it is worth the sacrifice. You cannot blame that on the press. This administration is not even trying.
Fifth, neither you nor my would be detractors have been able to articulate a clear set of goals that we can and should achieve in Iraq. Don't send us off scurrying for a largely irrelevant authorizing bill, which the authorizers only half understood and grudgingly passed, which isn't a strategy anyway, but merely an authorization to go ahead. Stating that victory would look like Japan or Germany is utter nonsense.
How about a little test: Q1. Who was the most important strategic writer regarding the importance of sea-power? Q2. What was THE essential point made by von Clausewitz? Q3. What great military lessons were taught by the success of the Mongol armies that have formed the basis for modern military operations? Q4. What major strategic innovation was introduced in the conduct of the first gulf war? Who was the principal author of that strategy? What technological advancements enabled the development of that strategy? Q5. What were the sources of the strategy that Petraeus is trying to apply to Iraq? In view of the thinking behind this strategy what were the principal errors in conduct of military operations in Iraq prior to the adoption of this strategy?