When I put out word that I had volunteered to deploy to Iraq, I got many well wishers and more than a few "be carefull over there." But I did get one request that was a bit different, a friend of mine named Judson, who I went through Navigator training with and later B-52 training, asked me to "give my assessment of whats really going on over there." I have studiously avoided any political discussions or diatribes on this forum and I won't go there now. But I do think I can give an assessment and at least back it up with some observations of major media and trends, since quite obviously I can't comment on any classified information I've had access to.
It is very difficult, for me at least, to properly write here. My days and nights are full and when I'm not doing my job I sleep or try and get a workout in. I have nearly no time whatsoever to research or frame my commentary so in advance, as I've done before, I apologize if my writing is sloppy or not supported by a lot of facts or linked to good posts. Thats just the problem with writing with limited time.
Judson, my honest assessment is we are not only winning, we are doing it across the board and I think Iraq is on a pace to be self sufficient in a few years. By self sufficient I mean a functioning government, an increasingly growing economy, and a military that can handle the vast majority of their internal threats in about 2 years or so. That two year figure takes into account the term of art "enablers" that is the stuff thats outside the lane of infantry, police, and logistics. Thats the high speed intelligence, the self sustaining air force, the larger manuever combat forces. I think we will begin to see drawdowns this fall and continuing on, regardless of who is elected next year. But, I think in less than a year, our numbers will be below 100,000 troops and we will see us moving into the "train and equip" role with some quick reaction and other specialized forces, to include special operations.
Over the next couple of days, I will try and look through a couple of areas that I think highlight our success and also, I want to point out someone who I think can claim some small credit for our achievements, recently retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl. Nagle wrote the book "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" and I wrote about him on the Jon Stewart Show in this earlier post and have just started to read his book. I just wanted to lay out this initial commentary and let those few faithfull readers of this journal know that the Coaltion thats here, US, Allies and especially the Iraqis, have gotten the ship pointed in the right direction and are picking up steam.
More to follow....