The War as We Saw It

[boutons_]

"their little piece of a complex situation."

... which totally sucks. They are NOT reporting an isolated situation atypical of the total -hole.

The unending, ever more complex situation in Iraq is NOT a US- military-solvable problem, as Petraeus has said all along, since the US military can't solve social/sectarian/political problems which are THE problems that need solving.

Today we see dubya NOT endorsing Maliki, who is pretty much dead meat. Petraeus will probably give a overall picture of the surge having improved security in those limited areas where it was applied, while saying that improved security has not been used by Iraqi politicians to progress. I expect that NONE of the 18 benchmarks will have been achieved or even be seen as been progressed towards.

After Petraeus report effectively condemns Maliki, I expect dubya will make moves that will undermine or remove Maliki, which asks, who can do better in an undo-able situation?

[clambake]

I think if you had similar people writing from other units in other locations, you would have other fair assessments that are better then these guys reported. What they see and talk about is their little piece of a complex situation. If they are in one of the worse locations, then doesn't this report sound good for the cir stances?

Absolutely. Like, if we could get some "hotbed frontline combat" reports from, say, the guys working an antenna field, or some boring coffee mug command center chatter. At least they get to hear the action on speakers.

[1369]

Interesting front line account from a Marine