RE COUNTERINSURGENCY AND STABS IN THE BACK

"...The American effort was doomed because there was no long-term political basis for creating the kind of Iraq we had in mind--a pluralistic democracy allied with the United States...." DK


Paraphrasing, and generalizing, Kennan's remark re ambassadors: 
"They don't really know, to tell the truth, what a war is 

for...." 

I realize that Professor Kaiser would not put it this way.