If you read this Times piece (noted by Mario), Abizaid has an admirably sophisticated understanding of the war. He probably has just about everything right–except for missing the need to provide security to the population in Baghdad. If that doesn’t happen, nothing else will work–the politics, the training, the reconstruction. His light-footprint theory–that U.S. troops foster the violence–is reasonable in theory, but isn’t borne out on the ground. When our troops go into neighborhoods, they do tamp down the violence. It’s when they leave that the violence flares up again. Anyway, I’m glad to see him go and NR had been calling for him to go. I also hope Casey doesn’t replace him.