First, I think it's funny that anyone from CBC
* could write,
outsiders can set aside those deep and natural ties of affection for our soldiers that sometimes cloud one's vision.
Second, although the report was written by Carl Forsberg (BA), when you say "Institute for the Study of War," you're saying Kimberly Kagan (PhD); ISW's founder and president. While I personally respect some of her earlier work, a quick scan of anything she's written recently shows her to have become a one-trick pony:
-
The Surge: a Military History (Encounter Books, 2009), "Don't Short-Circuit the Surge" (
Wall Street Journal), "How to Surge the Taliban" (
The New York Times)...
So when you combine a CBC "journalist" ('woe is me; Canada's being picked on'), with a situating-the-estimate "think-tank" ('McChrystal's a fan of the surge, so everything will be OK now'), you're bound to get some loopy opinions.
Me? I preferred reading the ISW report, and forming my own opintions. It's available
>>here<< -- free, no less -- but there's a lot of pages for some.
* I know Brian Stewart is "retired" from CBC, but his bio still says "he continues to write a regular column for CBCNews.ca on international affairs and will be contributing to CBC documentary reports." If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...