More brutality in Iraq redux

Here is a video of the Daily Show interview described in this previous post.

Once again the sentiments expressed here, by a real expert, almost entirely contradict the sentiments of the right-wing punditocracy's self-declared experts. For them "winning hearts and minds" is an empty slogan that shouldn't obstruct a good boot to the throat. One example:

Less than two weeks after chickenhawk Dennis Miller complained on Hannity & Colmes that what’s wrong in Iraq is we’re not brutal enough to the insurgents, armchair warrior Michael Reagan, substituting for Sean Hannity, announced last night (12/20/06) that the US is too worried about “upsetting people” and should take “the gloves off of our military, let them go in and win the war the way they need to win the war.” Reagan didn’t explain what that meant or how it should be done but it’s likely he didn’t know, himself. He never served in the military. Those who have, like General John P. Abizaid and Colin Powell, advocate no such thing.

Worrying about "upsetting people" is precisely our new counter-insurgency strategy, the strategy we are being told is working.