Why surge?

Michael McBride:

When I cracked 1776 on Wednesday to give it its long overdue read, there were two pleasant surprises. I found that it was autographed by the author…something I am appalled at myself for not remembering. And secondly, alone on the inner leaf just prior to Part One, I was greeted by a simple and profound quote from General George Washington…

“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”

I should grace the elegance of his words by stopping now, but I fear that my editor is expecting more, and that my semi-conceited verbosity cannot be held in check.

Why Surge?

Developing synergy, while not one of the nine generally accepted “Principles of War,” is an essential element in warfighting. Synergy is developed by having sufficient resources available to conduct all aspects of warfighting required to complete the specific mission to an overwhelming effect.

Too few troops… and units will not be able to conduct all the necessary ops required to fight and win a counterinsurgency struggle. They will not be able to simultaneously hunt down armed and indiscriminant murderers, protect logistical lines of support, conduct aggressive patrolling operations, conduct community confidence building and infra-structure re-building efforts, and deliver the expected results to an impatient Congress in a timely manner.

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Three years of combat operations in Iraq has greatly diminished the capabilities of the insurgents in Iraq. Yes, they have become more lethal with their explosives…this is simply an outgrowth of the ability to get their hands on better technology, but they are not becoming a better organized, or more effective combat force. Indeed, I think it is very safe to say that if we pulled out today, the insurgents would not be the winner, as they are nearly spent and exhausted, but some third party would likely step into the vacuum that their diminished ranks could not fill.

The goal of the Surge is to complete the task of breaking the will of the insurgents, at the same time, having enough forces available to discourage the rise of a non-governmental third party from interrupting the growth of this fledgling democracy. A simple principle, and well within the norms of our current warfighting capabilities. Situations in combat change and often commanders must be prepared to adapt their strategies and underlying tactics mid-course…this, however is no cause for alarmist, defeatist behavior.

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We need to win the information war. We need to quit dancing around this one.

The military and the Administration need to redefine this part of the war, and they need to do everything in their power to communicate to the Iraqi people and to all Americans, that we are, even to this point, winning this war. We need to redefine the measureables, swarm the conservative talk shows, and embed as many conservative bloggers over the next few months as possible. Instead of dead US servicemen dominating the MSM, the American public needs to hear about kilowatt hours distributed across the Iraqi power grid. They need to hear how many small businesses opened up last month. They need to hear of dead insurgents, traffic volume, GDP, oil sales, school openings, local elections and everything else that peaceful societies take for granted and fail to appreciate. The public needs to be inundated with every bit of positive news that can make its way out of Iraq. To fail to do so, simply isolates our troops in their efforts and forces them to carry the enormity of their task solo, while the pack wolves known as the MSM circle like vultures waiting for failure. We have to gain traction on this aspect of the war, it is critical to keep the definition of the fight out of the hands of the defeatists….both MSM and Congressional.

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There is more and it is on point. The surge has man purposes, but the end purpose is to make the enemy understand that his cause is hopeless. When he understands that he will accept the defeat that has already befallen him. One of the most difficult tacks in the coming days is to get the Democrats and Chuck Hagel to quit giving the enemy hope that they will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. For those in this country who never wanted to win the war in Iraq it has been easy for them to come to the conclusion that our efforts are hopeless. For them they are, because they see political gain in our defeat. That is a shameful state for any political party but Democrats have their Copperhead legacy to fall back on.