Do the insurgents have the initiative in Iraq or does the U.S. military?
That important question came up at today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing which was examining whether the military surge in Iraq was working.
Major Gen. John Batiste (ret.) who commanded the Army's First Infantry Division in Iraq, and is a respected critic of the war, said the insurgents have the initiative since they can pick where and when to explode a truck bomb for instance.
But Frederick Kagan, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, rejected that view, saying that under the new strategy being executed by Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, the initiative was on the U.S. military's side.
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/06/who_calls_shots_in_iraq_us_or.htmlFrederick Kagan, AEI’s fraudulent "military expert" testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs today during a hearing entitled Iraq: Is the Escalation Working? Retired Major General John Batiste, an active member of VoteVets.org, joined him. As most of you know, Batiste commanded the Army’s 1st Infantry Division during the battle for Fallujah in 2004.
During the hearing, Kagan, one of America’s Young Chickenhawks, had the nerve to tell General Batiste that he, Frederick Kagan, knew more about military strategy in Iraq than did the general.
Kagan’s remarks were insulting and, for the most part, pretty outrageous. Unfortunately, most mainstream media outlets failed to take notice.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/27/1915/48004Email from VoteVets
Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,
Yesterday, Major General (ret.) John Batiste, a member of our board of advisors, testified in front of the House of Representatives on whether the so-called surge in Iraq is working. Then something curious happened.
An armchair soldier, Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, tried to maintain that he knows more about the military and Iraq than the man who was a commander on the ground for the United States Army. Both the Chicago Tribune, and our own Iraq veteran Brandon Friedman have the rundown, and how absurd the whole exchange was.
This is what we're up against. The few defenders of the President's failed strategy in Iraq don't include those who commanded in Iraq and are now out of the military and free to speak their minds. So they turn to so-called "experts" on Iraq, whose only real experience in this war is reading about it in the paper and writing thought-pieces about it.
Instead of all members of the panel respecting that there was one person - Major General Batiste - who had real experience in Iraq, and very valid points to make, some members of the panel decided to attack him as just being partisan. Most notably, in the hearing, Rep. Dan Burton chose to ignore all of the insight and evidence General Batiste was presenting, and claimed the General was just trying to defeat members of Burton's party.
Too bad for Rep. Burton that General Batiste noted he is a die-hard Republican, and "the whole problem" with what's happening in Washington is that defenders of the President are trying to make the war into a partisan issue.
This is why it is so important that you urge everyone you know to sign up at VoteVets.org. To put it as plainly as I can, only with numbers can we cut through the junk and take our credible, fact-based, and experienced case to the American people. Please, today, urge your friends and family to go to VoteVets.org and sign up.
Thank you for supporting the Voice of America's 21st Century Patriot!
Sincerely,
Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran
Chairman and Co-Founder, VoteVets.org
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