From The Washington Post:An Army board headed by Gen. David H. Petraeus has selected several combat-tested counterinsurgency experts for promotion to the rank of brigadier general, sifting through more than 1,000 colonels to identify a handful of innovative leaders who will shape the future Army, according to current and former senior Army officers.
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My Comment: When the Iraq war started he was a major general in command of the 101rst. Now he is the top dog, influencing the selection of future commanders, and clearly is being groomed for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The key paragraph that I liked in this Washington Post story is the following:
In an article published this year on the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, McMaster challenged what he called the military's preoccupation in the 1990s with technology, to the neglect of the political and cultural dimensions of war. Military leaders must end the "self-delusion" that high-tech weapons and a "minimalist" commitment of forces can solve conflicts, he wrote.
It is always people on the ground that makes a difference in any conflict. Technology is a tool to win the battle, but it is understanding political and cultural factors that will win the peace.