Sunday, November 11, 2007
Is it victory?
If you have an open mind about the military progress that is being made in Iraq, you ought to read two posts, one from Greyhawk of the Mudville Gazette and the other from Richard "Wretchard" Fernandez of the Belmont Club. Roughly, Greyhawk looks at counterinsurgency, Petraeus-style, from a tactical level, and Fernandez at an operational level. Both are well worth reading, as is this comment of Wretchard's:
It's interesting to reflect, on Veterans Day, that all bravery can ever buy is time. What we do with that gift of time, so dearly purchased, is always what momentary victory is all about. It's a chance, nothing more.
The question, of course, is whether the Iraqis will use that chance. They did not before, in those promising days between the fall of Saddam and the attack on the United Nations in Iraq that killed Sergio Vieira de Mello and so many others. That attack was, for all practical purposes, the beginning of the long war waged by those who would destroy Iraq's future. With brief moments of optimism in between -- the elections of 2005 most especially -- the United States and its allies did not again regain the initiative until they remembered how to fight a counterinsurgency. So, why ought we hope that the time bought so dearly with American and Iraqi bravery will be put to good use? Perhaps -- just perhaps -- the Iraqis are also tired of war. The increasing tendency of Iraqis to turn on and turn in the enemy may also portend a new willingness to put peace ahead of tribal or confessional advantage.
Otherwise, the time will be lost.
1 Comments:
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David M, at
Mon Nov 12, 10:16:00 AM:
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 11/12/2007 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention updated throughout the day…so check back often.
