Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The "Surge" explained
A couple of weeks ago I listened to Austin Bay's interview of David Kilkullen, an Australian counterinsurgency expert advising General Petraeus in Iraq, which podcast I highly recommend. Now Kilullen has written a very clear and accessible explanation of the purpose of the "surge" at Small Wars Journal. He does not say whether it is succeeding or not -- it is way too early to tell -- but he does provide the reader with an analytical prism through which to interpret the news.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Jun 26, 10:52:00 PM:
Another excellent historic view of what is going on that I can not recommend more highly for reading to really see the process involved is How to Win in Iraq-and How to Lose.
By 
antithaca, at
Tue Jun 26, 10:59:00 PM:
It's interesting that Kilcullen hints at "doing the best with what we've got" and a preference for something else.
I wonder what that something else would be? The Afghan model? Another model? Of course he can't really say in his current position...but it doesn't mean I can't wonder.
By , at
Wed Jun 27, 04:47:00 AM:
The Republican senators are now saying the surge is not working. The Dems are now saying that we have lost in Afghanistan.
From what I read and saw before the surge even started the senior US military leadership never thought the surge would work. Certainly the troops were not sent over quickly enough. The true surge of operations just started and the politicians are falling over themselves to get out of Iraq.
I can understand that people may want change but there is a certain gutlessness about pressing for more change before the change already in place has had a chance to work
I hope we are not destined for a redux of Vietnam with another generation of embitered soldiers.
By Purple Avenger, at
Wed Jun 27, 01:03:00 PM:
The Republican senators are now saying the surge is not working.
Since as Kilcullen states, it really hasn't even started yet, that means those Republican senators are complete morons. I wouldn't trust them with a sharp pencil.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Jun 29, 11:25:00 AM:
Somehow, I think that if we took all the sharp pencils away from Congress, our lives would improve...
