The Col. Gentile collection and debate

[Rank amateur]

A number of things LTC Gentile says are undoubtedly right and he has identified the problem.

by and large the American army has done pretty well in Iraq—even prior to the surge--with the strategic and political cards it was dealt.

It has pushed us into doing things that make no sense to me: like arming the enemy of the government that we support.

It does not take into account the reality of conditions on the ground in Baghdad, the fact that there is civil war occurring, and those 25,000 additional combat troops simply are not enough to solve militarily what is essentially a political problem.

I’m going to suggest that you guys are such experts on trees, and so wedded to your particular tree related theories, that you can’t see the forest. Only the amateurs, and detached professionals, can see the forest. There are no military solutions to Iraq’s political problems.

The people haven’t abandoned you. (Strangers still show up at funerals for KIA. People still donate to charities for the wounded. Everyone is appalled by the conditions at Walter Reed.) They haven't lost faith. They just know that asking you to sacrifice your life in pursuit of an impossible objective is stupid.

COIN - in Iraq - is a knife. LTC Gentile’s approach is a bigger knife; it feels better, but is no more effective.

We know the resources we can apply. We know the tactics we can use. What we need is an achievable objective.

The country is hungry for a politician who will identify a reasonable objective, and without bull####, tells us how long it will take to achieve, what price we need to pay and why it’s worth paying.

We’re not optimistic.