A messy business to be sure. I p-o'd(ok, this happens semi-often, so I forget which ones) some senior officers when I stated that our soldiers were out on the ground giving us an "A+" effort to execute a "C+" strategy.

So here sits COL Jones crafting strategy to try to bring up that marginal grade, because young men and women are out there giving it their all everyday with SPC Jones holding up that excellent grade. To send our military into harm's way with a flawed strategy, or a marginal plan, or unqualified leaders should be criminal, but of course it isn't. After all, this is complex stuff and reasonable minds can differ, etc, etc.

This is why what I write here isn't about TTPs, or "what I did in Iraq last summer," or about some regurgitation of the very very flawed understandings of the nature of the threat, the nature of populace-based conflicts, etc.

I am on a different road. Sometimes it is a bit lonely out here, but while I am quite sure I am not 100% right about anything; I am equally confident that I am on a path that will preserve our national interests in a manner consistent with our principles as a nation and offer us a chance at a long, bright, and relatively peaceful future.

Fixing everything wrong with Iraq, or Afghanistan or Pakistan won't do that; neither will killing every young man who decides (for whatever reason) to put on an AQ T-shirt and pick up a rifle. Besides, we already have 95% of our effort trudging down that well worn path.

I just want that A+ effort to mean something. And it won't unless we can get our senior leaders to understand that the old models they grew up with are obsolete and that they must approach similar problems in new ways, but that even those new ways must be solidly rooted in sound, enduring principles of conflict.