Except more training and more advisory officers. Take the troop level down to say 80k or so (made up number, I'm not a general) over the next, say, 6 months (ditto), and have every soldier be either a part of an Iraqi unit as an advisor, or part of a rapid reaction force that stays on base most of the time. No "presence patrols", I can't freakin believe that we're still doing those, hey let's go be targets for the afternoon.

It's gonna be a mess for the next 10 years anyways, I don't see why we should sacrifice more than necessary. Lets get out of the way and let them tire themselves out.

as he thinks he is. He made four stars but as a good freind of mine said, "Anybody with two DSCs is either crazy or a liar." He had a successful career but was very instrumental in getting Bush 41 to decide to call it quits early in Desert Storm. Like most people, he's done some good and some bad. He is not the holy grail.

Here's yet another General more concerned with protecting the institution than in geting the job done. This guy, like Powell, Clark and Franks was almost directly reponsible for the failure of the Army to address counterinsurgency and nation building training for over 30 years; a position that directly caused the failure to chop the insurgency in Iraq off before it got wound up. Thus, I can't get too sympathetic toward his epiphaneous position.

That's the long way of getting to the point -- he underestimates his Army. It ain't easy, there'll be more divorces and more junior officers will leave due to wife pressure -- but the Army won't break, it's pretty resilient.

The K Codes explained HERE.

for history of war/empire buffs (educational too):

Imperial history

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”--William Tecumseh Sherman