And they are the same person. Phillip O'Connor reminds us that General David Petraeus is also Doctor Petraeus with a PhD in Political Science from Northwestern. O'Connor is himself currently in Iraq and is witnessing, first hand the real-world application of the theories that General Petraeus has developed in his counterinsurgency handbook.
Author of the "Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual," Petraeus has literally written the book on 21st Century real-world application of a well-established political science theory on defanging armed insurgencies. David Kilcullen, the Australian adviser to Petraeus, has said that counterinsurgency is 100 percent military, 100 percent political, 100 percent economic and 100 percent social.
Petraeus, acting hand in glove with Ryan Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, is moving on all four fronts. Progress in these four areas will not be even or simultaneous. To the contrary, sequencing is crucial. Establishment of security, area by area, must be followed by such things as improved services, job creation assistance and local governance and policing.
The objective in counterinsurgency is not to destroy the enemy directly but to deprive him of the ability to intimidate the population and thereby displace the legitimate government.
Leadership "pheremones" seem to be permeating the air in the embassy and the Green Zone. One wakes up every morning knowing that whatever one's job is that day, it's contributing to a large counterinsurgency mosaic. Now I have an idea what it must have been like to play for the Green Bay Packers when Vince Lombardi was running the show. You are confident that there is a game plan and you understand how you fit in.
All but the farthest of the left elements have abandoned the attempts to smear Petraeus in advance of his testimony to Congress. There still are a few, mind you, but it has dialed back somewhat after some Democrats began to recognize – and admit – that real progress was being made in Iraq. It is the strategy of General Petraeus built from the theories of Doctor Petraeus that are making that difference. O'Connor's article shows why the left's smear strategy was always a bad idea.
You should have a look at Max Boot’s “The Savage Wars of Peace,” a great survey of the “little wars” America has fought (including Korea 1870!) and how we fought them. Elements of Petraeus’ strategy traces back to early Marine counterinsurgency techniques in Mexico and the Caribbean, Abrams’ strategy (applied too late) in Vietnam, and Tal Afar in Iraq in 2005. The frustrating thing is that we’ve always had people who’ve understood the multidimensional nature of counterinsurgency, but the lessons have rarely sunk in with the Pentagon brass.