There's Some Hope

While Washington Post columnist David Ignatius is a chummy with the foreign policy "realists" of D.C.(Powell, Armitage, Hagel, Biden, Baker, and others) and has been a little leary about the US achieving victory in Iraq, he has penned a good piece on Lt. General David Petraeus. As Ignatius notes in his column, Petraeus might save the day because he is a walking field manual(He wrote it) for fighting an effective counterinsurgency thus more suited in executing a proper fight against our enemies. Now Ignatius does make a good point in noting our tardiness in initiating an effective counterinsurgency but much like life, war is very unpredictable and one can't anticipate what will happen next.(Just look at The Revolutionary War, The Civil War, WWII, Vietnam or other wars in our past.) The best we can do is push this policy forward and hope that a wise American commander schooled in the art of counterinsurgency can achieve with the Iraqis something that is lasting or we'll feel safe in leaving. So if David Ignatius, who is not considered a great fan of GWB's foreign policy, can at least see a tiny ray of sunlight in this counterinsurgency fight then we have a chance.