Ackerman is worried about the firepower Petraeus has unleashed on Afghanistan:
Increasingly distant are the days when Defense Secretary Robert Gates worried aloud about replicating the Soviet Union’s failed heavy footprint in Afghanistan. Under the command of General David Petraeus, the military’s leading advocate of counterinsurgency, an unconventional war is looking surprisingly conventional. NATO planes are dropping more bombs than at any time since the 2001 invasion. Special Forces have been operating on a tear since the summer, to the point where Afghanistan’s president is saying enough is enough. The coalition is using massive surface-to-surface missiles to clear the Taliban out of Kandahar. And now the tanks are rolling in.
(Photo: A German soldier balances on the wreck of a former Russian tank on October 1, 2010 in Feyzabad, Afghanistan. By Miguel Villagran/Getty Images)