"The extra soldiers and Marines ... will prepare the forces for missions in areas besides Iraq and Afghanistan ... I believe we're a nation at war. I think that Afghanistan and Iraq represent the first battles of this long war ... this war against Islamic extremists."
These guys are Big Army. They just don't seem to understand that the "long war" is 5% brawn and 95% brain. From the QDR: Finally, by emphasizing greater cultural awareness and language skills, the QDR acknowledges that victory in this long war depends on information, perception, and how and what we communicate as much as application of kinetic effects.
Nor do they seem to realize that the forces are more effective when deployed in small numbers for focused, low intensity missions. From Robert Kaplan in 2005: Several years into the war on terrorism, one would think that Pashto would be commonly spoken, at least on a basic level, by American troops in these borderlands. It isn't. Nor are Farsi and Urdu—the languages of Iran and the tribal agencies of Pakistan, where U.S. Special Operations forces are likely to be active, in one way or another, over the coming decade. Like Big Army's aversion to beards, the lack of linguistic preparedness demonstrates that the Pentagon bureaucracy pays too little attention to the most basic tool of counterinsurgency: adaptation to the cultural terrain. It is such adaptation—more than new weapons systems or an ideological commitment to Western democracy—that will deliver us from quagmires.
This latest testimony is rich with meaningless buzzwords and jargon: "... the proper slope ..." "... whether or not we should look at off-ramping [2, 3]..." SEC. RUMSFELD: Once we started -- LT GEN RENUART: It started much earlier than that -- SEC. RUMSFELD: -- Earlier than that, in terms of the timing and the preparation and all of that. And then we said, okay, should there be some on-ramps or off-ramps if you need to add somehow. And they did. They came back with some -- LT GEN RENUART: Off-ramps. SEC. RUMSFELD: -- off-ramps, we called them.
"We can't do it by keeping shooting behind the ducks ... We have to get ahead of the program ..." "These additional Marines will allow us the additional dwell time needed ..."
Coming back to the Kaplan piece ... I wanted to share this with you, in case you didn't click through on the first pass: "Army people are systems people. They think the system is going to protect them. Green Berets don't trust the system. We know the Kevlar helmets may not stop a 7.62mm round. So we wear ball caps —— they're more comfortable. When you see a gunner atop an up-armor, bouncing up and down in the dust, breaking his vertebrae almost, let him wear a ball cap and he's happy. His morale is high because simply by wearing that ball cap he's convinced himself that he's fucking the system." "Big Army doesn't understand that before you can subvert a people you've got to love them, and love their culture."
Ponder :“Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.
Force Increase Necessary for War on Terror, Leaders Say | 
