Do we have the leadership and strategy to fight the "long war?"

Last Friday's Wall Street Journal had a front page story by Greg Jaffe, "Narrative Discord: Critiques of Iraq War Reveal Rifts Among Army Officers."

Jaffe writes about Lt. Col. Paul Yingling, a veteran of the war in Iraq. He tells us that Col. Yingling "poured his thoughts into a blistering critique of the Army brass, 'A Failure in Generalship,' published last month in Armed Forces Journal, a nongovernment publication. 'America's generals have been checked by a form of war that they did not prepare for and do not understand,' his piece argued." Col. Yingling argues with passion in the piece which you can read yourself.

The piece elicited significant debate within the armed forces. Jaffe, tells us, "The essay rocketed around the Army via email. The director of the Army's elite school for war planners scrapped his lesson plan for a day to discuss it. The commanding general at Fort Hood assembled about 200 captains in the chapel of that Texas base and delivered a speech intended to rebut it."

Read the whole article. It caused me to reflect and ask some troubling questions about our future as a democracy and a world power.

The Real Questions

Do we have the leadership and strategy to fight the "long war?" On a political note: would any of the presidential candidates give America the kind of war president the times demand? Would any of them dare to tell us that we at war and will continue to be at war whether we try to opt out or not? Would America elect the kind of president it needs even if he or she were on the menu?