A new generation of military leaders

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On "Here and Now," Dr. Kalev Sepp, professor at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterrey, California, explains who’s who in the military command. He was the Iraq Study Group’s military expert and until 2009 he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Capabilities.

Dr. Sepp says there’s a central figure: "The man who’s assembling this remarkable team of military leaders to direct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is of course the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Robert Gates, one of the most terrific public servants of our time. Here’s somebody who, with a PhD in Russian studies who originally rose up from junior officer to the director of central intelligence at the CIA, and went into the private sector and then was recalled to serve as secretary of defense."

The man Gates choose to take command in Afghanistan is Lieutenant General Stanley Mccrystal: "General Mccrystal is one of the most striking and charismatic of this new generation of generals that is rising up inside the military.

"Once he is in charge in Afghanistan, very shortly, his skills and talent as a very sophisticated counter-insurgent who can work in this full range of operations will become very evident."

Mccrystal is credited with masterminding the campaign in Iraq to track down and take apart the Sunni insurgency there.

As for General David Petraeus, Dr. Sepp explains the "Petraeus affect": "I’ve actually  heard this from senior British military officers, and what they see coming up inside the American military command are the particular kind of leaders who have both military experience with elite combat units; very high-end graduate level liberal arts education; who are very comfortable with congressmen, diplomats and the media, as well as their own soldiers and sailors and Marines. But in particular, they’re driven men — they have a strikingly high level of energy and engagement, and that’s the effect that Petraeus evinces."

General Raymond Odierno is another figure who is a part of the "new team," according to Dr. Sepp: "General Odierno is a remarkable personality who, after all those criticism when he was division commander in Iraq, he embraced that criticism and reformed himself … to where now special forces officers I talked to champion him as really understanding counter-insurgency and getting it, and the right way to fight this conflict." 

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