by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n Light amid Darkness<\/strong><\/p>\n It is crazy to think that going back from Centcom to forces commander in Afghanistan is any sort of \u201cdemotion\u201d\u00a0for Petraeus, who quite naturally needed some sort of respite after the ordeal of endless 20-hour days in Iraq. He is at the top of army rank, and there is a long tradition that theater command at the front is the preferred assignment. That’s why Marshall wanted Eisenhower’s SHAEF job, and the latter did not want the former’s; and why today we talk of Grant and Sherman, but not Halleck the owl who nominally oversaw and coordinated Union movements. Ridgway was the man of the hour in 1951, not Collins as Army chief of staff or any of the ranking Joint Chiefs who nominally oversaw him.<\/p>\n If Obama will seize the day, he has an opportunity to refocus on Afghanistan with renewed emphasis \u2014 asking Eikenberry, Holbrooke, (and perhaps even General Jones in D.C.) to step down, and turning the project over to Petraeus (who ran COIN in Iraq without the ripples of discontent over rules of engagement that we saw in Afghanistan), someone of the caliber of Ryan Crocker (who was as firm in private with Maliki as he was supportive in public) as ambassador or diplomatic head of the theater, and the likes of a General Mattis (who understands the proper order of defeating the enemy so that the civilians among then can be won over without fear, and who is as polite and collegial as he is tough) as Centcom commander. They are the the very best this country right now has to offer, and it would show inspired presidential leadership when the McChrystal fiasco had just a day ago put Obama in a bad\/worse choice scenario.<\/p>\n This should be a no-brainer for a \u201cnever waste a crisis\u201d mentality that is so prevalent in the White House.<\/p>\n Our Grant and Sherman<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of us had hoped that a leader like General Mattis might become Centcom commander. The recent announcement that Secretary Gates, wisely, has just done that could not come at a better time.\u00a0Mattis is a proven battlefield commander, a sophisticated student of history, and unshakeable in his nerve and purpose.<\/p>\n We now have, with General Petraeus as ground commander, our two most gifted senior combat generals in charge of Afghanistan, who have worked well together and who were brilliant in Iraq in its darkest hours. I think all this is somewhat analogous to the final rise of Grant and Sherman in spring 1864 \u2014 or Ridgway in the last days of 1950, or the arrival of Abrams in Vietnam in latter 1968 \u2014 and increases our chances for success, despite the pervading pessimism of the hour that Afghanistan is lost. Secretary Gates should be congratulated for the appointment.<\/p>\n Now, if the diplomatic confusion can be sorted out, and responsibilities unified into one office that deals in a more sophisticated fashion with the Karzai government and is more attuned to our two generals, we can recover. Perhaps now, as a trifecta, bring back the gallant and gifted Ryan Crocker, who proved to be the most talented American diplomat, in the most harrowing of conditions, of the last two decades?<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner Light amid Darkness It is crazy to think that going back from Centcom to forces commander in Afghanistan is any sort of \u201cdemotion\u201d\u00a0for Petraeus, who quite naturally needed some sort of respite after the ordeal of endless 20-hour days in Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[586],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-og","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2574,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/entertainment-gone-awry\/","url_meta":{"origin":1504,"position":0},"title":"Entertainment Gone Awry","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner What's Hollywood to Do? Over the last eight years we saw\u00a0Fahrenheit 911,\u00a0Syriana,\u00a0Redacted,Rendition,\u00a0Stop Loss,\u00a0Lions for Lambs,\u00a0In the Valley of Elah, and a host of other movies released about the U.S. war on terror and the Iraqi conflict. The general theme was that George Bush lied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2009"","block_context":{"text":"August 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/august-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4180,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fade-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":1504,"position":1},"title":"Fade Away","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Nothing novel or memorable with our war critics by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services \"I\u00a0implore you to inaugurate or invite proposals for peace forthwith. And in case peace cannot now be made, consent to an armistice for one year.\" What unpopular war was that? And does the following gloom\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2005"","block_context":{"text":"December 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/december-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2294,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-national-911-schizophrenia\/","url_meta":{"origin":1504,"position":2},"title":"Our National 9\/11 Schizophrenia","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"the great debate over 9\/11 and the American response. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Ninety-six months ago, 19 Islamic terrorists \u2014 led by Mohamed Atta, organized by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and ordered by Osama bin Laden \u2014 hijacked four American airliners. They destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2009"","block_context":{"text":"September 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/september-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2180,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/truman-and-the-principles-of-u-s-foreign-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1504,"position":3},"title":"Truman and the Principles of U.S. Foreign Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Wall Street Journal Jimmy Carter rejected the postwar consensus. President Obama appears to be following a similar path. Upon entering office, Barack Obama knew little about foreign policy. But then neither did Vice President Harry S. Truman when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2009"","block_context":{"text":"October 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/october-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4716,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-to-lose-this-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":1504,"position":4},"title":"How To Lose This War","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers As gas prices rise at home, scream that the war abroad was fought to steal Iraqi oil and get American hands on cheap petroleum. Talk about American imperialism and hegemony while the United States spends billions of dollars to implant democracy in Afghanistan and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2004"","block_context":{"text":"May 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/may-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":158,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-short-history-of-amorous-generals\/","url_meta":{"origin":1504,"position":5},"title":"A Short History of Amorous Generals","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas Many were as pursuant of women as they were of the enemy \u2014 and the former rarely impaired the latter. \u201cYou\u2019re a very bad man.\u201d So yelled Dorothy at the Wizard of Oz, once the imposing, larger-than-life face on the screen was revealed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1505,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions\/1505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}