Powerful Quote About Counterinsurgency
Here is the quote:
"The Vietnam experience left the military leadership feeling that they should advise against involvement in counterinsurgencies unless specific, perhaps unlikely, circumstances obtain -- i.e. domestic public support, the promise of a quick campaign, and freedom to employ whatever force is necessary to achieve rapid victory. In light of such criteria, committing U.S. units to counterinsurgencies appears to be a very problematic proposition, difficult to conclude before domestic support erodes and costly enough to threaten the well-being of all America's military forces (and hence the country's national security), not just those involved in the actual counterinsurgency."
The answer of course is General David Patraeus. Now click here and here to see the citation. MoveOn.org clearly does not represent all those opposed to the War in Iraq, but perhaps after reading Patraeus' quote and watching this Charlie Rose interview with David Kilcullen (a counterinsurgency expert who was on Patraeus' staff) their question deserves another look.