Finger pointing in Iraq..

via CNN.

"They were not outnumbered," Carter told CNN's Barbara Starr in an exclusive interview. "In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. And yet they failed to fight; they withdrew from the site."

See the video and read the article here.

This is Vietnam on steroids.  What good is it to spend all the treasure, take all the sacrifice in lives and broken bodies...if the Iraqis just don't seem to give a fuck?

The only real solution is to walk away from Iraq, see how this all plays out and then deal with the consequences.

This high level finger pointing by Ash Carter isn't something to cheer.  If people are honest then they know that the administration (and the previous one) lost the fight in Iraq long ago.  Not on the battlefield but in the planning.  Human Terrain and Counter Insurgency theory just can't deal with a tribal/religious sectarian conflict.  The concepts failed in the field.

Carter is just laying the groundwork for the defense of the administration's policies when he should be advising the President to tell the country that its time to walk away.  Past time.