Today, with violence down in Ramadi and the surrounding Anbar province west of Baghdad, MacFarland's tactics have led to one of Iraq's rare success stories. Al-Qaeda's presence has diminished as Iraqis have begun to reclaim their neighborhoods. And Army officials are examining how MacFarland's approach might help the military make progress in other parts of the violence-racked country.Ok, so there was
...
"There are big changes coming," Mains says. "It's not like we turned into a debating party. … It's just the way we try to draw in other people to get the other viewpoint." The military's new counterinsurgency manual makes clear that firepower is only part of the equation.
[ cf An Army colonel's gamble pays off in Iraq ( Emphasis Added to help the Irony Sink In, or Leach Out )
The leader of a group of local Sunni tribes cooperating with American and Iraqi forces in fighting extremist Sunni militants in Anbar Province was killed by a bomb today, Iraqi police officials said, in a blow to an effort President Bush has held up as a model of progress.Hum...
[ cf Bomb Kills Sunni Sheik Working With U.S. in Iraq ]
When the shill fo the 2007 FM 3-24, ( now available in trade paper from the University of Chicago Press, and we all hope will be the next great made for TV Movie ), says that this book is on the bed side table of the President, the Veep, the SecDef and 23 of the 25 Senators on the Armed Services Commitee - wouldn't it have been gooder if they could have said that someone had read it to the Prez and helped him with the really big words, like 'learn' and 'adapt' so that he could wrap his head around "adapt and learn"....
Rather than using it as one more religious talisman, for the Holy Trinity of War President, War Czar, and Praetor Petreaus!!!