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The Surge was a disaster.
"Over the past decade, the foreign-policy debate in Washington has turned upside down. As George W. Bush’s administration drew to an end, the brand of ambitious, expensive, Manichaean, militaristic foreign policy commonly dubbed “neoconservative” seemed on the verge of collapse. In December 2006, the Iraq Study Group, which included such Republican eminences as James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, Ed Meese, and Alan Simpson, repudiated Bush’s core approach to the Middle East. The group not only called for the withdrawal from Iraq by early 2008 of all U.S. combat troops not necessary for force protection. It also proposed that the United States begin a “diplomatic dialogue, without preconditions,” with the government of Iran, which Bush had included in his “axis of evil,” and that it make the Arab-Israeli peace process, long scorned by hawks, a priority. Other prominent Republicans defected too. Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon called the president’s Iraq policy “absurd” if not “criminal.” George Will, the dean of conservative columnists, deemed neoconservatism a “spectacularly misnamed radicalism” that true conservatives should disdain."
http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2015/08/gop-candidates-led-astray-legend-surge/119011/?oref=d-river
"Over the past decade, the foreign-policy debate in Washington has turned upside down. As George W. Bush’s administration drew to an end, the brand of ambitious, expensive, Manichaean, militaristic foreign policy commonly dubbed “neoconservative” seemed on the verge of collapse. In December 2006, the Iraq Study Group, which included such Republican eminences as James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, Ed Meese, and Alan Simpson, repudiated Bush’s core approach to the Middle East. The group not only called for the withdrawal from Iraq by early 2008 of all U.S. combat troops not necessary for force protection. It also proposed that the United States begin a “diplomatic dialogue, without preconditions,” with the government of Iran, which Bush had included in his “axis of evil,” and that it make the Arab-Israeli peace process, long scorned by hawks, a priority. Other prominent Republicans defected too. Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon called the president’s Iraq policy “absurd” if not “criminal.” George Will, the dean of conservative columnists, deemed neoconservatism a “spectacularly misnamed radicalism” that true conservatives should disdain."
http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2015/08/gop-candidates-led-astray-legend-surge/119011/?oref=d-river
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 17
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In Iraq - absolutely. In Afghanistan, not so much - the POTUS announced retreat in the same speech he ordered the (downsized) charge.
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Col Joseph Lenertz
Agree, Capt Seid Waddell. The political, economic, and informational components need to be congruent with the military effort, and they weren't in Afghanistan. Also glad your opinion isn't based on a single article.
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Capt Seid Waddell
Col Joseph Lenertz, especially an article with the obvious political spin that this one has.
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LCDR (Join to see)
Capt Walter Miller Actually I'm willing to bet he did read the article. He however responded to this question assuming it was a real question not just you making a statement about your beliefs.
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Capt Seid Waddell
LCDR (Join to see), thank you sir, I did read it. I also kept close watch on the events as they developed at the time, and I can recognize re-writing of history with an ideological slant when I see it. I experienced that before during and after Viet Nam as well.
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I don't agree. The surge was part of the continuum of war and nation building.
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MAJ Ken Landgren
I read the article. Look the Iraqis effed up by wanting jurisdiction over our military so we packed our bags and left. They further effed up by not settling the hundreds of years of hate between the Sunni and Shia, the military became nothing but a paper tiger, and the government became a bureaucracy bloated with millionaires who discriminated against the Sunnis. In light of this and our continued meddling in Syria, they were creating a perfect storm.
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MAJ Ken Landgren
We were not defeated. The Iraqi government, military, and people were defeated. Millions of Sunnis viewed the Iraqi government as illegitimate because of discrimination and persecution, which opened the door to insurgents to occupy Sunni towns and cities.
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