The Lessons of Iraq

I agree with Greg Scoblete’s comments at RCW Blog regarding Col. H.R. McMaster’s World Affairs article on the lessons of Vietnam and Iraq. McMAsters is known as the “brain behind Petraeus” (which is kind of like saying the “muscle behind Tyson” circa 1985), and he argues that in both wars, Pentagon planners intoxicated by technological advances misjudged the nature of the war they were entering. Here’s Scoblete: If we collectively decide that the problem with the Iraq war was thatDonald Rumsfeld and company were insufficiently mindful of populationsecurity and overly optimistic about high-tech warfare, then we haven’tactually learned anything. . […]