Abu Muqawama was feeling pretty good about his new estimation of Odierno until Fred and Kimberley Kagan -- two allegedly serious military historians -- published the kind of sycophantic puff piece in the Weekly Standard that Fred Barnes usually writes about President Bush. Folks, there is absolutely ZERO critical analysis taking place here. One friend of this blog writes that the article perfectly encapsulates all that usually goes wrong with the stuff produced by second-generation neoconservatives:
1) Intrafamilial byline? Check
2) Hyperbole opening? Check.
My favorite sentence, nay, my favorite word in the whole essay is the gratuitous "easily" in the following: "As a purely military operation, the series of MNC-I offensives easily bears comparison with Patton's race across France or the Soviet destruction of German forces in 1944 and 1945. "
3) Civilian perfidy? Check.
4) Military apotheosis? Check.
Note that the thesis is not that Petraeus and Odierno corrected previous generals' errors. It is that P&O are just more awesome than the awesomeness that preceded them.
5) Foregone conclusions? Check.
Bookmarks