Before Abbottabad: hunting AQ leaders (merged thread)

[Ken White]

Here's a link. Scroll down to "Quotes." Notice the top one, the last phrase is telling, I think....

LINK

My observation has been that all you name subscribe to the same ethos. If one could call it that...

See also my comment #10, above.

[Old Eagle]

Unfortunately, in spite of the line up of pretty reputable journalists in the research, the article smacks of typical MSM marketing. You write what sells, you lead with what grabs folks attention enough to buy your mag. The job of newspapers is to sell newspapers, the job of politicians is to get elected.

The underlying thesis of the piece is that higher ranking military officers are overly conservative and risk averse. Unexamined were the likely consequenses of 1) launching scarse U.S. forces into the mouth of an inferno without proper support, extraction plans, etc, -- imagine how that story would read 2) launching major attacks at every shadow that may or may not be UBL. or 3) launching attacks that needlessly (emphasis) kill innocent civilians, incite political consequences that lose the strategic war at the expense of the tactical victory.

I was also intrigued to learn that Stan McChrystal was only a major when he commanded JSOC. Makes me automatically wonder what else is of questionable "fact" (see Ken's point above).