Note to Secretary Gates

Posted By Blackfive

"Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war." - Thucydides (the first Milblogger)

Dear Mr. Secretary-

While I fully believe that changes are necessary for us to make progress in Iraq, it has come to my attention that you are holding LTG Petraeus back from immediately taking command of the situation in Iraq.

Launching attacks, "surging", while allowing General Casey to command for another month before allowing LTG Petraeus to get on the scene is a bad, bad decision.  Petraeus needs to be on the ground yesterday.

General Casey is a good man, but he's not going to be responsible for persecuting prosecuting the new strategy.

Mr. Secretary, your detractors have painted you as a man of great analytical ability, but not as a man of action.  Prove them wrong and take action, now.

In the most respectful way that I communicate my frustration with the handling of this is to say,  "Seriously, I want to know what in the hell you people are thinking by (1) signaling our moves and then (2) keeping LTG Petraeus from taking the reigns in order to execute those moves."

The only way the new strategy will work (surge + new tactics + new diplomacy) is if you allow the new chain of command to, well, exercise their ability to get things moving. 

Look, Osama, Sadr, Iran, Syria and everyone else on Haifa street knows that if a Democrat is elected President, that we'll be out of there  - leaving all of the peace loving Iraqis to die or be subjugated to severe Islamic law.  We need to succeed before the eighteen month time table, and the only way we'll have the time and energy to succeed will be to get Petraeus on the ground and working on the solution YESTERDAY.

G--dammit, get moving!

Cordially,

Blackfive

Update: Mr. Wolf sends the link to this WorldwideStandard post about the nomination of Petraeus.

Update 2: As Caleb points out in the comments, 'prosecute' is what Petraeus should be doing, not ''persecute' as I mis-typed.

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Note to Secretary Gates

"Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war." - Thucydides (the first Milblogger)

Dear Mr. Secretary-

While I fully believe that changes are necessary for us to make progress in Iraq, it has come to my attention that you are holding LTG Petraeus back from immediately taking command of the situation in Iraq.

Launching attacks, "surging", while allowing General Casey to command for another month before allowing LTG Petraeus to get on the scene is a bad, bad decision.  Petraeus needs to be on the ground yesterday.

General Casey is a good man, but he's not going to be responsible for persecuting prosecuting the new strategy.

Mr. Secretary, your detractors have painted you as a man of great analytical ability, but not as a man of action.  Prove them wrong and take action, now.

In the most respectful way that I communicate my frustration with the handling of this is to say,  "Seriously, I want to know what in the hell you people are thinking by (1) signaling our moves and then (2) keeping LTG Petraeus from taking the reigns in order to execute those moves."

The only way the new strategy will work (surge + new tactics + new diplomacy) is if you allow the new chain of command to, well, exercise their ability to get things moving. 

Look, Osama, Sadr, Iran, Syria and everyone else on Haifa street knows that if a Democrat is elected President, that we'll be out of there  - leaving all of the peace loving Iraqis to die or be subjugated to severe Islamic law.  We need to succeed before the eighteen month time table, and the only way we'll have the time and energy to succeed will be to get Petraeus on the ground and working on the solution YESTERDAY.

G--dammit, get moving!

Cordially,

Blackfive

Update: Mr. Wolf sends the link to this WorldwideStandard post about the nomination of Petraeus.

Update 2: As Caleb points out in the comments, 'prosecute' is what Petraeus should be doing, not ''persecute' as I mis-typed.

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