I appreciate Lt. Col. Gentile's article. I also appreciate Rob's elucidation of the thoughts behind it and of his own. Allow me to weigh in.

I think Iraq is more complex than to call it a civil war, and leave it at that. There are aspects of that, indeed, just as there are aspects of Islamic jihad, and aspects of inteference by Iranian and Syrian elements (regional conflict), sectarian strife, indigenous insurgency, terrorism, etc. It is a complex affair. I believe these things not simply because of what I read in the MSM or even blogs written from the front. I have also extensively talked with Marines who have recently returned.

Rob and Jedburgh are right. I count myself as a conservative, but this administration failed us in too many ways to count. Rumsfeld's idea of fighting a war in Afghanistan with a few special forces operators, satellite uplinks for airmen as they guided bombs in on target, and indigenous fighters has been a failure. We needed force projection, and we got gizmos. He and Wolfowitz bullied Shinseki out of a job, and we got Iraq on the cheap. We needed force projection, we got gizmos.

The intelligence was poor. I was never impressed with the whole WMD argument (chemical weapons aren't as effective as conventional ordnance), and was in fact opposed to the whole idea of OIF to begin with, excepting the possibility of the nuclear option (which again, was poor intelligence). But I am in that category who believes that once started, losing is the worst of options (unless we intend to lose it - discussed below). Michael Ledeen and Victor Davis Hanson, both of whom have been incorrectly criticized over this forum, are also in that same category. Neither one supported the idea to begin with, but once started, found no option except success to be acceptable.

If my view is correct, many tens of thousands of foreign fighters who would have otherwise fought us elsewhere (Afghanistan, or even U.S. soil) have died in Iraq. My son has killed some of them. The unintended consequences of OIF is that it has become a killing field for al Qaeda, Ansar al Sunna, and other anti-American fighters. This is positive, along with the possibility that if we take the region seriously, Iran might be couched between what can become two stable states with U.S. presence as a deterent for their aspirations.

As to IEDs, I see the problem as tactical and local, but not simply as local. Rumsfeld's bold new vision for the region and our naive belief in the healing powers of democracy caused us to ignore the advice from Israel who had already encounted the IED and created V-Hull technology. Hence, we were surprised on a tactical level when, upon stupidly running an AAV down a desert road in Iraq with 14 recon Marines, it exploded into a pile of rubble and twisted metal in August of 2005, losing every Marine aboard.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/05...t.exclude.html

We could have done better, and our leadership is to blame. And it IS THAT SIMPLE. I have advocated dismounted patrols as better for COIN at my little blog, but in the end, Lt. Col. Gentile is right. IEDs are here to stay, and will become part of the landscape into the future.

My own view is that we have made advances, but there are more necessary before we can call this finished. The JAM must be taken on and finished, and Syria and Iran must be dealt with. If Syria and Iran are dealt with (and I am not talking about talky-talk and "negotiations" with them), my opinion is that this will get a WHOLE . HELL . OF . A . LOT . EASIER.

If we are not goint to take all of this seriously, if we are engaged in order to keep this from appearing as a loss, or if things start to deteriorate towards a high level civil war where we refuse to take on Sadr and the Badr forces directly, then it is time to withdraw.

I think that the frustration with a large portion of the public has more to do with the lack of will to win than it does anything else. I see the public every day, I work with them, I talk with them, unlike many in the professional military. Releasing Sadr, supporting a regime in Iraq (Maliki) which is secretive and completely inept (and beholden to Sadr, Sistani and Iran), the refusal to take on the JAM, and all of the things that lead to the continuing violence, contribute to the perception that we are simply there being blown up, in the middle of a fight we didn't start and cannot control.

Not that anyone in a position of authority listens to me, but I don't want my son to go for a second combat tour under these conditions. If we continue to argue for more troops in Europe and continue to deploy forces along the DMZ to allow South Korea to pursue its childish "sunshine diplomacy" while troops in Iraq are doing 15 month deployments, and ignore the EFP factories in Iran while Carriers with aircraft and ordnance sit in the Persian Gulf unused, then bring all of our boys home, and immediately.

Yes, IEDs are effective, and cause the public to see the campaign in a negative light. But who is to blame for this, when we ignore the counsel of Israel years back on V-Hull vehicles, we won't shut down the factories in Iran, we allow Sadr to remain unmolested, and troops train with German and South Korean forces rather than Iraqi forces?

http://www.captainsjournal.com/2007/...egic-thinking/

Point? The failure is at the HIGHEST LEVELS OF SENIOR LEADERSHIP, and always have been.