This may have been a throw away line, but I actually agree with it. I'm reading the article thinking they're grasping at straws to find commanders who can perform miracles. Counterinsurgency operations are extremely difficult, and in a place like Afghanistan, that hasn't had the remotest semblance of civilization in decades, maybe impossible. Note to our civilian leadership... don't overreach and expect to turn the whole world into democracy loving capitalists. We don't have the resources or the willpower for it. I've always liked the "Vlad The Impaler/kids in a station wagon" approach. Stick your enemies heads on posts (the Vlad part), toss the keys to the kingdom to someone who is tolerable (probably barely) and tell him "don't make me come back here" (The kids in a wagon part... I guess it would be an SUV now).