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?
I have gone into enough detail to show the kinds of analyses that genuine professionals apply. I have also given you enough detail of the approach that next time you should be able, with a little bit of independent thought, to discover whether a politician or political military officer's statements are those of a shallow minded charlatan. You discover that, not by whether his opinions accord with your opinions, but whether his facts seem sound on the basis of what you know of the world, and whether his analysis of those facts and the conclusions to be reached are deep and far reaching, based on a carefully schooled analysis.
One lesson of strategy is that strategy counts. The probability of randomly guessing your way through a long sequence of actions is nil. Professionals don't guess. They know, or they know how much they don't know and make conservative allowances for it.