Retired ArmyGeneral Stanley McChrystal said the US began the war with a "frighteningly simplistic" view and still lacked the knowledge to achieve a successful end.
But ArmyGeneral Tommy R Franks, who heads the US Central Command and enforces the southern no-fly zone, recommended reducing the number of patrols but maintaining a minimum number to check possible movements of Iraqi troops towards the Saudi and Kuwaiti borders.
Major General Robert Scales, a retired commandant of the USArmy War College, argues that the passage of large numbers of the best and brightest Egyptian officers through American war colleges has suffused the army with American values.
General Jack Keane - former vice chief of the USArmy and the architect of the "surge strategy" in Iraq - told the BBC that the object of the new offensive was to "take momentum" away from the Taliban.