Here, in a nutshell, is hubris.
Writing about Col McMaster's book on Vietnam, Dereliction of Duty, one Amazon reviewer opines:
Nothing new here: .... Throughout the whole book, the author implies that if the politicians had just listened to the generals on the Joint chief of Staff, we would have won the war. Pure nonsense, those guys in the ivory tower didn't understand the nature of the war anymore than the author does.
If you have any doubts about the reviewer's political orientation, all you have to do is read his analysis of where Col. McMaster went wrong. The reviewer simply regurgitates the standard liberal mantra on this topic:
LeMay and the rest of those WW II dreamers were completely ignorant of the political and nationalistic forces at work in Vietnam.... the Domino Theory was pure wishful thinking on the part of the military.
(You know, that fictional domino theory, in which one Asian nation after another would become communist -- nations like North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia -- killing millions. Good thing that never happened!)
But, hey -- because the reviewer leans left, he's therefore much more knowledgeable about how to fight a war than Colonel McMaster, who is both a soldier and holds a PhD in history.
Never mind, also, that Colonel McMaster is currently fighting on the front lines in the Iraq war. Apparently, McMaster is so ignorant about "the nature of war" that he, by name, just received effusive praise from an Iraqi mayor who was so awed by the effective US military campaign which wiped out terrorism in his city that he wrote:
To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life....
Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them....
The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom.... The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.
It might be argued that the mayor doesn't know anything about "the nature of war" either. Fair enough. But I'm fairly, as mayor, he's qualified to judge difference between "a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction" and "a secure city flourishing with life." And I'm also fairly confident McMaster has thus adequately demonstrated his skills in the "hearts and minds" aspect of warfare as well.
And those critera, after all, are the true measure of a campaign's effectiveness, aren't they?
Read the whole letter.