http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/15498434.htm<snip>
Last week I asked more than a dozen top Army and Marine Corps generals -- active-duty and retired, dissidents and administration loyalists -- to address what we should do now in Iraq.
All of them agreed that America's strategy and tactics in Iraq have failed and that Bush's policy of "staying the course" in Iraq isn't likely to produce anything but more frustration, more and greater problems for the United States in a dangerous world, and more and bloodier surprises for the 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
"Until we back up and assess what we have gotten ourselves into, I fear we will see a repeat of the war in Vietnam," said retired Marine Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, who recently called for firing Rumsfeld. "Our military will again fight a series of battles and engagements in Iraq without the overall purpose that a good campaign plan provides."
If the administration acted quickly, a better outcome could be pulled out of the flames, said retired Marine Gen. Tony Zinni, who formerly headed the U.S. Central Command. To get Iraq right, he said, would take five to seven years, "and it means a much more comprehensive and well-planned set of programs to build political, economic, social and security institutions."
Some retired officers, such as Zinni, spoke on the record; others, including all of those still on active duty, would speak only on background for obvious reasons. But there was a broad consensus among them on the outlines of a new strategy in Iraq: