This commentary is provocative but unfocused--citing everyone from Chairman Mao to Edward Gibbon, and from the Mau Maus to the Moros, as it dissects and criticizes the new Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual as "deeply disturbing, both for the practical dangers it creates and for the dishonest approach employed to craft it." Still, there are some marvelous passages, as when the author says bluntly that "Entrusted with the mission of turning Iraq around, Petraeus turned out ... More »

Very little on sources, evidence, or nuance is present here. He reframes the message of the manual as a straw man and then throws spears at it. Murderous security that creates more enemies than it creates friends only delays defeat. I did not buy his assumption that Petraeus is a genius hero and the Iraq occupation is a model of success.

great opinion piece as per 'Armed Forces Journal' standards.... very hard to dispute...while not much is said about everything/ anything else happening with war or wars. Peters is unafraid to speak of killing as a means to impose security. I wish Ralph Peters was a News Trust reviewer...he seems to have a cool take on events and documents.