By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
The fall of David H. Petraeus as the nation's spy chief does not erase his long record as a military commander who turned the tide of the war in Iraq and set up new tactics for killing Islamic terrorists, his friends and military observers say.
The Sept. 11 attacks jolted the U.S. armed forces into a new era of war-fighting in which commando strikes, intelligence collection and manhunts often overshadowed heavy armor and big bombers of yesteryear's conflicts.
Former U.S. military officers are warning against any direct military action in Libya and other unsettled Arab nations, as the Pentagon works furiously on a list of options to give the president.
"I think Sen. Hagel is an excellent choice to head the Department of Defense," said retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, a key command adviser in Iraq during the 2007 troop surge. "He is well-versed in Washington politics, and having seen the sharp end of combat in Vietnam gives him a unique perspective on policies that could very well put America's young men and women into harm's way."
