Thank God for PBS. I watched FRONTLINE’s “Endgame” last night on their Web site. If you want to know how we ended up where we are in Iraq, and the new strategy that’s being employed by Gen. Petraeus and American forces in-country, you have to watch this. In fact, it should be required viewing for all Americans. I’ve yet to see a better, more accessible, more complete explanation of Iraq and our new counterinsurgency strategy.

While there is some discussion of the internal political machinations within the White House, DoD and DoS, the vast majority of the program is devoted to our evolving strategy — and its failures and successes — in Iraq.

From the Small Wars Journal Blog:

On Dec. 19, 2006, President George W. Bush said for the first time that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq. It was a dramatic admission from a president who had insisted since the start of the war that things were under control.

Now, as the U.S. begins what the administration hopes is the final effort to secure victory through a “surge” of troops, Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.), Col. William Hix, Col. H.R. McMaster, Maj. Thomas Mowle, State Department Counselor Philip Zelikow and other military and government officials talk to FRONTLINE about both the military and political events that have led up to the current “surge” strategy. Endgame is the fifth film in a series of Iraq war stories from FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk, including Rumsfeld’s War, The Torture Question, The Dark Side and The Lost Year in Iraq…

Watch the full program online. Endgame Interviews: Michael Gordon, Col. William Hix, Frederick Kagan, Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.), Lt. Col. Andrew Krepinevich (Ret.), Col. H.R. McMaster, Thomas Ricks, Col. Kalev Sepp (Ret.)

The last quote in the program, given by Dexter Filkins, a war correspondent for The New York Times, sums up my own feelings and worries about the current stage of the Iraq War.

Here’s a snippet of it: “In this particular narrative, the hero has gathered himself and seen his errors and tried to get everything right. And maybe it’s too late.”

[Hotel Tango: SWJ Blog]