Scales Comments on Counterinsurgency FM

Robert Scales, retired general, frequent cable news "talking head", and one of my former commanders, has some interesting comments on the new Counterinsurgency field manual.

Read Scale's comments at http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20061009-094036-9129r.htm
(You can download the final draft of the field manual at
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-24fd.pdf)

I am currently looking over the manual and it appears to be a giant leap forward for US doctrine. However, Scales makes an excellent point:

Gen. DePuy once observed that "doctrine isn't doctrine unless 51 percent of the officer corps believes in it." At last our military has a counterinsurgency blueprint worthy of its powerful antecedents. The question now is whether or not our policy-makers will read it and our military leaders will believe in it enough to put it into practical form.