Good News Can Be Good

If the messenger is credible and you get the deeper picture.

“Good News Can Be Good” By William F. Buckley Jr. Apr 7 2007 at National Review Online

After quoting Gen. David Petraeus on The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer on April 3 Buckley states:

“It is of course preposterous to assume that we have here a critical strategic turning point in the fortunes of the Iraqi enterprise. But one reflects on the Vietnam parallel. Toward the end of 1973 and into 1974, the South Vietnamese army was holding well against the communists. There were grounds for genuine strategic optimism, but supplies were needed, and could only be had from Washington.”

Strategic optimism, wishful thinking!! What is strategic optimism? I do not recall the ARVN doing so well in 73, the NVA was building up their resources.

This is the old line, if we had supplied the ARVN they could have held out against the nationalists. This is wrong and plays only to the feint hope that you can outlast the residents.

This wishful thinking implies we can win at the guerillas’ game and merely stay in the game and win.

The ARVN might have, should have, maybe got lucky and survived another year.

To imply that we could have sent more supplies is no way supportive of we could keep on keeping on with no result.

Then Mr. Buckley says: “The effort to stabilize Iraq is making strides, if Gen. Petraeus is to be trusted.”

It is prepsoterous to think any progress is being made much less a turning point in Iraq Bill forgot he used the word preposterous earlier in the article.

Then all he he asks is to trust this guy, I do not. I do not believe his optimism is real, I do not know his strategy nor his operational focus, nor that he or anyone still in the fray has any plan other than to attempt to outlast “them”.

That is why we left Vietnam, outlasting them is not strategy it is tactic and we lose when we confuse how we fight for why we fight.

“Them” is far more than al Qaeda in Iraq.