But, given the failure to come up with effective counter-measures to the ubiquitous IED's after two and a half years of increasing carnage being inflicted upon US troops, I'm more hopeful than confident that Hack's maxim of "out-geeing the gee" may have actually guided the tactical planners on Operation Swarmer.

If the operational planners were being guided by the experiences cited in the books in the Wall Street Journal article, then our on-scene observer is probably, and unfortunately, correct -- Operation Swarmer was merely a PR ploy ordered up from Washington to show a few seconds of video clips of Iraqi soldiers being ferried into combat by US Blackhawk helicopters.

Nearly three years ago Hack called for the Army to institute a version of the "Retired Executives" program -- to take some of the true gunfighters that do exist among the Army's retired general officers, and send them to Baghdad as military advisors to the senior commanders. Men such as retired lieutenant generals Hal Moore and Hank Emerson could have been immensely valuable to the on-scene commanders. (There is generally a Foreign Service Officer from the State Department assigned, so why not a Military Advisor, other than for the admission that the assigned Army commander is human and not the omniscient lord of the cosmos portrayed by his PAO?)

Had a Hal Moore, or a Hank Emerson been advising Gen. Casey, I would not be relying on hope that Operation Swarmer was a major tactical success. I'd be damn confident that the murderous bastards in the area of operations had just suffered a major tactical disaster, and that many virgins were being distributed to this newest batch of martyrs.

SFTT President Roger Charles is an Annapolis graduate, a retired USMC Lt. Col. who commanded an infantry platoon in I Corps during the Vietnam War, is the winner of the prestigious Peabody Award for news coverage, and was a protégée's of the late Col. David H. Hackworth. Rog can be contacted at sfttpres@aol.com . Please send comments to DWFeedback@yahoo.com .