Officers With PhDs Advising War Effort
5 February Washington Post - Officers With PhDs Advising War Effort by Tom Ricks.
Quote:
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, is assembling a small band of warrior-intellectuals -- including a quirky Australian anthropologist, a Princeton economist who is the son of a former U.S. attorney general and a military expert on the Vietnam War sharply critical of its top commanders -- in an eleventh-hour effort to reverse the downward trend in the Iraq war.
Army officers tend to refer to the group as "Petraeus guys." They are smart colonels who have been noticed by Petraeus, and who make up one of the most selective clubs in the world: military officers with doctorates from top-flight universities and combat experience in Iraq.
Essentially, the Army is turning the war over to its dissidents, who have criticized the way the service has operated there the past three years, and is letting them try to wage the war their way...
Petraeus, who along with the group's members declined to be interviewed for this article, has chosen as his chief adviser on counterinsurgency operations an outspoken officer in the Australian Army. Lt. Col. David Kilcullen holds a PhD in anthropology, for which he studied Islamic extremism in Indonesia...
Kilcullen, the counterinsurgency adviser, wrote recently on the Web site
Small Wars Journal, "All that the new strategy can do is give us a fighting chance of success, and it certainly does give us that."...
Smart Troopers, Dumb Press
MSM implies in a subtle way that it is rare for military personnel to be educated/intelligent. All the team is lacking is an old hippy who has had to shoot a few men in his day and as Forrest Gump would say, " and that's all I have to say about that."
Lt. Colonel (Dr.) David Kilcullen, Australian Army
Let me suggest we get a few things clarified:
1. Winston Groom, of Mobile, Alabama, who I personally like, is a University of Alabama graduate, as am I, and is of course the author of FORREST GUMP. Groom is a many time accolated, world recognized author and was a Captain, USA in Vietnam.
2. Lt. Colonel (Dr.) David Kilcullen, Australian Army is of course a PhD anthropologist, with current expert knowledge both hands on in Iraq and academically dealing with Islam in various settings and forms. There is no reason to be dull and deny his academic focus which operates to compliment his military identity,which military side paid for his PhD.
3. Being a maverick and operating literally and in a think tank sense outside the box is desperated needed in all walks of life, worldwide, but especially in our War on Terrorism today. It is good to know we have the likes of Lt. Colonel David Kilcullen working for General Petraeus now.
Let's kick the old school, hide bound, military academy ring knocker thinking and snide remarks and find solutions to save lives and shorten this war on terrormism and in Iraq/Afghanistan, whose lifespan will last for generations to come, whether the yellow journalism practioners like it or not. "It's a fact" as Forest Gump would say!
The writer of this note served 1963-1965 as a young USAF office with the US Embassy then in Karachi, Pakistan. He is now retired as a reservist from HQ USSOCOM. He is a mean old coot, some would say. GS.
Will there be a Phase-two Surge?
My first reaction to reading this article was that these guys are all too sharp and ambitious to take the ball if it's just to run out the clock. Am I the only one expecting initial successes in Baghdad to lead to a full court press, second-phase Surge throughout Iraq?