The Thinker--or Just Sitting Around?: CW

Saturday, September 27, 2008

I am also fascinated by the contemporary wisdom that the "surge" has "worked."

Anonymous said...: Well, yes, the surge "worked" in that it surged the number of troops in this fruitless endeavor.

"Mission Accomplished!"

The key is the lack of metric to base goals on. Since you can't win an occupation we need to make sure we don't define goals based on the fact that we can't win.; Saturday, September 27, 2008 7:21:00 PM
Carlos said...: In 1965, Bobby Kennedy said of Johnson's "surge" inVietnam:

"Victory in a political war is not won by escalation, but by de-escalation," and "the essence of counterinsurgency is not to kill, but to bring the insurgent back into the national life."

'Nuff said.; Sunday, September 28, 2008 2:41:00 PM
From the other side of town said...: The "surge" has "worked" based upon the concept that every other initiative, operation, tactic, strategy, what have you was a resounding failure. McCain claims Obama thought it would fail, and to date it hasn't officially failed, hence the notion of not failing = success.; Monday, September 29, 2008 2:48:00 PM

The Thinker--or Just Sitting Around?