The Burdens of General Petraeus

The Burdens of General Petraeus

And the Democrat Left has started calling him 'General Betraeus'...

I. Our Rules / Their Rules

Several governments have defeated Islamic insurgencies, but usually only after about ten years, and adopting policies of summary executions and carpet bombing or shelling.

The Algerians in the 1990s finally stopped the so-called Islamic Salvation Army. The Russians decimated Chechnyan separatists. Syria’s Hafez al-Assad brutally exterminated several groups loosely affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, most infamously by the thousands at the town of Hama.

But so far, no recent military has succeeded in defeating a radical Muslim terrorist insurgency, while subject to a constitutional government and an absolutely free media. In this regard, the United States — given its position as the world’s only superpower and recognized as the most sensitive of all countries to easy criticism — is especially at a military disadvantage.

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http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWZkN2FlZDY0MWZlYWMzMTExMDhkYjliNmIzYWUzNjU=