I’d missed this story. Perhaps you had, too.
It turns out that the decision to attack Fallujah and the decision to withdraw before taking Fallujah were both made over the protest of the Marine general in the field: apparently in the White House, where “stategery” — the habit of making every decision, no matter how technically complex, based on perceived political advantage — is apparently the single operating principle.
When military decisions are made for political reasons, soldiers die needlessly.
When military decisions are made for political reasons, soldiers die needlessly.
Mark A. R. Kleiman: The high cost of stategery