National security experts in Rochester on Sunday

From the Post Bulletin:

On Sunday, national security experts will be stumping for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama at noon at Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

The town-hall-style meeting will feature retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraq military and later became a critic of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's management of the war.

Other panelists will include Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairwoman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and former ambassador Bob Gelbard, who served as President Clinton's special representative for the Balkans from 1997 to 1999.

The article also notes that Brian Davis will be speaking to a Palin-McCain rally in Blaine. Since he'll be in the Sixth, perhaps Davis can share Political Muse Eric Austin's Open Letter To An Absent Representative with his BFF Michele Bachmann:

My question is what will it take for you to pay attention to the people of your district?

It seems even in an election year and at the height of election season you are displaying an attitude of ownership over this area and thus feel no need to be in personal contact with the people living here. Granted, you and I don’t agree on much and I support Elwyn Tinklenberg but how can you and more importantly, how can your supporters justify a 20-month tenure in office with nary a single open forum or constituent meeting in the district?

Are you simply too busy? If so, perhaps you could talk to Rep. Tim Walz in the 1st District and ask him how he juggles three times more committees than you and has still found time to meet on numerous occasions and in numerous places with his constituents. . . .

The letter appeared in the St. Cloud Times. How interesting of the Post Bulletin to report that the "local action" in the First heats up when Davis speaks. . . at a rally in Blaine, but can't manage to report that the first encounter between Congressman Walz and Davis already occurred in Worthington? (We can't recommend enough that readers watch the Globe's video of the candidates speaking.  The contrast speaks volumes).

Comments

[MinnesotaCentral]

Eaton is a great choice. He got very favorable commentary in the book Hope is Not a Plan which was written by active duty officers assigned to review Iraq from the inside. Their conclusion was that there was a lack of robust strategy, preparation, communication, coordination, and understanding of the local cultures, the nature of the resistance, and the local politics in Iraq by coalition forces.
While Eaton got a thumbs up, Gen. David Petraeus was faulted for his plan. The book came out in early 2007 before Petraeus understood the impact of Abu Massab al-Zarqawi's 2004 letter to bin Laden in which he advocated attacking the Sunnis which eventually lead to the Sunni's attacking al Qaeda in Iraq ... and the development of the Sons of Iraq (as DOD named them) or the Awakening Councils (as Iraqis call themselves). Petraeus built on that to change the approach in Anbar Province (paying soldiers keeps them quite). I have a hunch that Eaton will highlight the Sons of Iraq and not the American Surge as the prime effect on the change in Iraq's violence.