Perspective: Odierno a hawkish number two

Several people have been writing fairly glowing accounts of the "brainy" and essentially anti-inflammatory approach the US military's new command team in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and his number two, Lt.-Gen. Ray Odierno , may bring to their work there. Okay, to be fair, most of these accounts have centered on Petraeus-- who has, I should note, long cultivated his relationship with the press. Thus, we have had Juan Cole : "Petraeus is among the real experts on counter-insurgency, and did a fine job... when he was in charge of Mosul"; Trudy Rubin : "one of the Army's smartest and most creative generals", and many others...

However, very few of these people in Petraeus's personal cheering section seem to have dug much deeper-- either into Petraeus's own strategic thought, as reflected in the new counter-insurgency manual he helped write during his latest gig as commander of the army's "Combined Arms Center" in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; or into the professional record of the man who will be in charge of day-to-day operations in Iraq under his leadership, Ray Odierno .

A first stab at understanding what Odierno might bring to his new job should start with the record of his service as commander of the 4th Infantry Division during its time in Iraq, March 2003 through April 2004.

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