Reply #9: I have no training that qualifies me to judge Petreus.

[chieftain]

I do know that the manual he authored on combating insurgencies sets forth metrics that would require substantially more combat troops than what are there even after this escalation is complete.I am certain that there have been mistakes on the part of the military. But the lion's share of the blame for this misbegotten debacle rightly belongs at the feet of the civilian leadership in the WH, DoD and Congress. It is nothing short of craven for the architects of the strategy for this war to foist responsibility on to those who were charged with carrying out their
fatally flawed blueprint.