Six Questions for Doug Macgregor on Iraq and the Surge

[Gian P Gentile]

2. Has the “surge” in troop levels played an important role here as well?
Not really. Where once there was one country called Iraq, there are now three emerging states: one Kurdish, one Sunni, and one Shiite. More than two years of sectarian violence have left districts in and around Baghdad completely Sunni or completely Shiite, and that has significantly reduced violence in those districts and resulted in fewer bodies in the streets. This new strategic reality, combined with huge cash payments to the Sunni insurgent enemy, is what has given U.S. forces a respite from the chaos of the last four years. The introduction of a few thousand additional troops into Baghdad’s neighborhoods was never going to result in any kind of strategic sea change.

Harpers Magazine online posed 6 questions on Iraq and the ongoing Surge to retired army colonel and author Doug Mcgregor. His answers are not of the "matrix" and as usual challenge conventional wisdom. Considering the MG Scales oped on culmination, Macgregor's answers offer up a different conceptualization of the war in Iraq and the way ahead.

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001783

[SteveMetz]

Harpers Magazine online posed 6 questions on Iraq and the ongoing Surge to retired army colonel and author Doug Mcgregor. His answers are not of the "matrix" and as usual challenge conventional wisdom. Considering the MG Scales oped on culmination, Macgregor's answers offer up a different conceptualization of the war in Iraq and the way ahead.

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001783

It's nice to see a former student who transcended whatever damage I did to his brain.

Actually, I think he's pretty much on the mark.

[Tom Odom]

It's nice to see a former student who transcended whatever damage I did to his brain.

Actually, I think he's pretty much on the mark.

Agreed. His first 5 answers are excellent. In response 6, I think he pushes the oil angle too far but that is a question of degree. At the same time he is quite correct in saying the Middle East is a turbulent arena and long term forecasts are SWAGs at best.

Best

Tom

[SteveMetz]

Agreed. His first 5 answers are excellent. In response 6, I think he pushes the oil angle too far but that is a question of degree. At the same time he is quite correct in saying the Middle East is a turbulent arena and long term forecasts are SWAGs at best.

Best

Tom

It's that high quality CGSC education at work. (A few others that I didn't mess up were Russ Honore, Dan Bolger, and Pete Leahy--now Chief of Army in Oz).

[Tom Odom]

It's that high quality CGSC education at work. (A few others that I didn't mess up were Russ Honore, Dan Bolger, and Pete Leahy--now Chief of Army in Oz).

hmmmm and I did not make the list....

[SteveMetz]

hmmmm and I did not make the list....

Well, no one bats 1.000.

[Ken White]

It's that high quality CGSC education at work. (A few others that I didn't mess up were Russ Honore, Dan Bolger, and Pete Leahy--now Chief of Army in Oz).

changed a great deal after he made MAJ, he was virtually unmessable...

[SteveMetz]

changed a great deal after he made MAJ, he was virtually unmessable...

True story. He was having a bit of difficulty getting counterinsurgency, so I really had to work with him. Finally it clicked and he gave a pretty good presentation. I was commending him and someone in the back of the room piped up, "You know sir, you just took a perfectly good tanker and dicked him up."