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Sunday, May 09, 2004 |
 WP. An increasing division in the US senior military ranks over success in Iraq.
Army Col. Paul Hughes, who last year was the first director of strategic planning for the U.S. occupation authority in Baghdad, said he agrees with that view and noted that a pattern of winning battles while losing a war characterized the U.S. failure in Vietnam. "Unless we ensure that we have coherency in our policy, we will lose strategically," he said in an interview Friday.
"I lost my brother in Vietnam," added Hughes, a veteran Army strategist who is involved in formulating Iraq policy. "I promised myself, when I came on active duty, that I would do everything in my power to prevent that [sort of strategic loss] from happening again. Here I am, 30 years later, thinking we will win every fight and lose the war, because we don't understand the war we're in."
Some officers say the place to begin restructuring U.S. policy is by ousting Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, whom they see as responsible for a series of strategic and tactical blunders over the past year. Several of those interviewed said a profound anger is building within the Army at Rumsfeld and those around him.
A senior general at the Pentagon said he believes the United States is already on the road to defeat. "It is doubtful we can go on much longer like this," he said. "The American people may not stand for it -- and they should not."
2:23:22 PM 
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I am going to start posting all of my copious K-Log writing on a new weblog. Hopefully, this will be of value. I have perhaps two months worth of posts in backlog. This post is on synthetic RSS feeds.
11:06:56 AM
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BBC. Saudi Arabia attracts billions from Sumitomo for a new oil facility. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First it shows that Japan is willing to invest in Saudi Arabia while the US is retreating (the US has told all citizens to leave the country). Second, given the visibility of this investment, it will likely make the Japanese targets for terrorism in the future.
10:53:31 AM
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Go Nancy! Former First Lady Nancy Reagan made an impassioned call for taking controversial stem cell research out of the political arena, saying it could help cure illnesses like Alzheimer's which so sorely afflicts her husband. "We have lost so much time already. I just really can't bear to lose any more."
If you have a relative (or are yourself) afflicted with Diabetes, Parkinsons, and Alzheimer's, this is a make or break issue for this administration. My daughter has Type 1 Diabetes and my father has Parkinsons. This administration has basically declared war on them.
10:35:40 AM
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More on Abu Ghraib (this is important to Boyd's approach to Grand Strategy):
(Maj. General Geoffrey) Miller and a team of experts visited the prison in August and September, at a time when the prison population was growing and a guerrilla insurgency was intensifying. Military officials were frustrated over a lack of information about the insurgents.
One of Miller's recommendations was that the U.S. military police, serving as guards at Abu Ghraib, become "actively engaged in setting the conditions for the successful exploitation of the internees," according to an internal investigation by an Army major general that was harshly critical of procedures at the prison.
Two months after Miller made his recommendations, some of the guards began systematically abusing and humiliating Iraqi detainees. Some guards have said they had been asked by intelligence officers to rough up the prisoners to help the interrogations along.
9:57:50 AM
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BOYD ON GRAND STRATEGY. John Boyd is one of America's best military thinkers. His approach to strategy puts Abu Ghraib into context and provides additional structure that aids understanding of insightful commentary from thinkers like Dan Gillmor.
Of course, as always, any ideas on how to improve this post are welcome (everything from spelling errors to failures in logic). You are my editors. Thanks.
9:24:00 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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