That’s what Lt. Gen. David Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning. It needs to be underlined and it is up the Commander-in-Chief to bolster national will moving forward.

That’s what the troops repeatedly and candidly told us on our embed trip, too. It’s not just about stopping the violence in Iraq and rooting out government corruption. It’s the smaller, more mundane things, too. Today’s Hot Air TV report, featuring a Khadamiyah blanket drop mission by the Dagger Brigade, gives a small taste of the ups and downs of counterinsurgency. It. Ain’t. Easy.

The officers we talked to praised Petraeus as brilliant, hands-on, and committed. The Senate Armed Services Committee website has a link to Petraeus’s article on COIN in Military Review, “Learning Counterinsurgency: Observations From Soldiering in Iraq.” His summary:

Milblogger Chester explains the “strategic corporal” from point 12 here.

The Patriquin Powerpoint.

The Theory of Counterinsurgency in Six Easy Paragraphs.