Comments on: Kaplan re: Petraeus

By: ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » Cooking with what you have

ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » Cooking with what you have — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:29:34 +0000

[...] Kaplan follows up his pre-Patraeus report analysis by widening his bottom-up tribalism theory to include Pakistan, Baluchistan and Afghanistan in his [...]

By: Jimm

Jimm — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 06:07:14 +0000

My god, I thought that read:
‘Kaplan suspects that America will be in Iraq “for tens of thousands of years to come”?’

***

Could it be that leaving will be the cause of more grief and bloodshed than arriving was? I was fully against the invasion at the time, but I think it’s the wrong time to give up. Stay and finish the job, however costly and bloody. The Iraqi people deserve peace. It’s amazing how much time and money have been frittered away, and how little has been achieved. I even think partitioning Iraq may be the only way to save parts of it. I can’t see any future for the current parliamentary setup other than decades of shaky coalitions, deadlock and internecine feuds, with the threat of coups, secession and civil war hanging over it…

By: subadei

subadei — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:14:45 +0000

I’m quite willing to cede Petraeus his success in Anbar via the Sunni tribes (despite todays assassination of Allawi al-Issawi) but I have to wonder if the diplomatic efforts in trying to unite the sectarian elements politically within Iraq’s government isn’t, to some extent, contradicted by the tribal efforts in Anbar. On the political front we’re tossing our lot in with Malaki’s Shia dominated government yet on the tactical front we’re pulling Sunni alliances to our side. At some point the two ideologies will meet and, save some miraculous sectarian koombaya, a choice will have to be made.

I understand that Petraeus’ strategy is both the division of the Sunni tribes from al qaeda and the realization of a stable Baghdad in order to further political cohesion and action. But I’m increasingly convinced that the further his goals are met in both strategic theaters the further away national unity drifts.

By: Chirol

Chirol — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:44:41 +0000

Mark: In future, please limit yourself to relevant comments or at least humor. You’re often irrelevant and unsupported hit and run rants are becoming less appreciated.

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:08:53 +0000

YH: Glad to help keep the CA blog groovin’ on Bob all nite long.

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:08:02 +0000

Petraeus does not look like a nerd. He looks like an ascetic. There are intellectual generals and some of them are good ones, and sometimes a struggle is about brains more than brawn, and such a man is the man for the job at hand.

The jihadis have to be impressed by one thing: Petraeus’s troops kicking the door in and blowing their flippin’ heads off. So far, so good on that.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:54:52 +0000

Petraeus doesn’t look like a warrior but like a nerd. Admiral William Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickenshit” and added, “I hate people like that, “http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/II14Ak02.html

Are the jihadis impressed with his academic credentials? The empire has become a parody.