Analysis: Nominations signal faith in strategy

Analysis: Nominations signal faith in strategy
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, April 25, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. — The nominations of Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno to top positions in U.S. Central Command and Iraq respectively are part of a shift in the military’s warfighting philosophy to the counterinsurgency tactics that both men embrace, experts said.

Petraeus is one of a few commanders with the expertise in counterinsurgency needed to head U.S. Central Command, said Charles Perry, of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, a nonpartisan think-tank based in Cambridge, Mass.

“Whatever one thinks about the longevity of operations in Iraq, what he and those around him brought to the mission was absolutely needed and way too long getting there,” Perry said.

The Defense Department announced Wednesday that Petraeus had been nominated for the new post, while Odierno had been nominated to become the new overall commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, and Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli got the nod for Army vice chief of staff.

Petraeus is co-author of the Army and Marine Corps’ counterinsurgency manual, Odierno is credited with carrying out successful counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Chiarelli reportedly advocated adopting counterinsurgency tactics while serving as the No. 2 commander in Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54307



uhc comment: If the Cato Institute approves it, then everything must be right. Right?

I mean, afterall, CATO was the sidekick of the Green Hornet

I wonder why they changed the K to a C?

to match neoCon.