...is that the AP will no longer have to tie themselves in knots spinning the successful completion of counterinsurgency milestones as US forces "abandoning Iraqi cities". Via James Taranto, this AP article takes a full five paragraphs to get around to admitting that US troops are pulling out of some Iraqi cities because they are secure enough to entrust to Iraqi security forces.
2 comments:
I hate that COIN's been politicized. Petraeus went way the hell out of his own way to take input from leftist hippies while writing the COIN manual, and Petraeus himself was kinda a hero of the left before he became commander of MNF-I.
If you look at Thomas Ricks' Fiasco, a pretty critical look at the Bush Administration's misguided Iraq policy, Petraeus is the clear hero of the book, along with General Mattis (USMC). The first time I heard someone use the pun "betray us," it was from a right-leaning soldier from Petraeus's 82nd who thought his COIN thinking put soldiers in harm's way.
I blame MoveOn and DailyKos. Plenty of us on the left consider GEN Petraeus to be a great soldier.
I don't even know if this is really specifically about Petraeus or even about COIN; it seems to me this sort of thing must simply be instinctual in large segments of the press at this point.
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