OUT
| How Iraq was lost: the civilians botched the war. |
Will Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus replace him? He doesn\’t have the seniority,
but he sure knows counterinsurgency. Will tradition or talent win out? At least
Rummy\’s jealousy won\’t get in the way.
Abizaid contradicted Deadeye Dick and Rummy.
Abizaid was against the \”surge,\” otherwise known here as ESCALATION. His reasoning was the danger of Iraqi dependency.
General Abizaid is considered one of the most gifted military leaders we have today. The reviews have already started.
\”Understanding how difficult the job is, nobody\’s done it better than
John Abizaid,\” said a Pentagon official who as an Army general worked
with Abizaid.Yet critics say Abizaid has placed too much emphasis on Arab sensitivity
to foreign occupation, and therefore never demanded enough U.S. troops to
stabilize the country. \”He was too smart by half,\” another U.S.
officer said.\”The bottom line is we are losing a war in his theater on his watch,\”
said Michael E. O\’Hanlon, a defense expert at the Brookings Institution, saying
Abizaid\’s popularity has dwindled in recent months as the situations in Iraq
and Afghanistan have deteriorated. \”We need a fresh approach.\”(snip)
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who has been friends with Abizaid for more than
three decades and served with him in the 82nd Airborne Division in the mid-1970s,
said Abizaid is \”probably the most capable person we could have had because
of his experience and his talent and his commitment to the troops he leads.\”But Reed, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said decisions made by
former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top government leaders
put Abizaid in a difficult position.
O\’Hanlon is full of it. It you want to talk about the \”bottom line\”
and \”losing a war in his theater on his watch,\” you sure as hell better
utter the name of Donald Rumsfeld first, then General Abizaid. Because you can\’t
lay the whole thing at the general\’s feet, unless you also state, like Colin
Powell, a good soldier sometimes has to resign to keep disaster from developing on his watch.
Good soldiers learn the hard way. So, Abizaid joins Powell, while America and our
military continue to sink in the quicksand of the Mesopotamian desert.
We\’ll see what Mr. Bush learned from Rummy. Will the new SecDef Gates put in a toady of tradition, or someone with true talent and counterinsurgency cunning, as well as the independence needed to say what needs to be said to the politicians? I\’m not optimistic, so I expect the former before the latter.
One more time unto the breach?
Get out.
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