Article

2006-09-25 Olde Tyme Religion

Jihad Watch : Ralph Peters flailing in a fog of confusion

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Posted by anonymous5089 2006-09-25 07:46|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Ralph has a valid point about some seeing Muslims as subhuman. But by flailing away at "right wingers" he goes down several notches in my book as being someone with something meaningful to say. Sure, it probably pays his bills; you can't get published unless you go after the right-wing boogey man. But by lumping "right wingers" together and ignoring the left or the multiple others who blame a group of nameless, faceless, "others" for all that's wrong in the world - Ralph becomes what he complains about - a shallow bigot.

Posted by Crurt Sneth8456 2006-09-25 12:48|| 2006-09-25 12:48|| Front Page Top

#2 Every brillant man has his off days. This is one of Col. Peters'.

My problem is Peters hasn't delved into the critical issue of target discrimination and why it is an important part of war.

Posted by badanov 2006-09-25 14:28|| http://www.freefirezone.org]">[http://www.freefirezone.org] 2006-09-25 14:28|| Front Page Top

#3 Peters has a history of being full of shit. Thats why those who served with him discount his opinions, heavily. He is a pretty good writer but a second-rate intel weenie.

Go read his first "big hit" novel, "Red Army". Its so full of fundamental errors, misunderstandings, and outright howlers that its almost a comedy.

Peter's quailty of facts in his writing and his reasoning are both equally limited, and both frequently in error.

And that continues through today.

And he's not flag rank - he was a Lt. Col, not a full bird, so use the correct rank - don;t give him any undeserved gravitas. He was too crappy as an intel staff officer to rise any farther.

On a personal level, Ive met him and I think he is basically a self-promoting jackass. In the end, he's just another half-informed, attention whore from the beltway.

Posted by Oldspook 2006-09-25 17:02|| 2006-09-25 17:02|| Front Page Top

#4 I went to the NYPost op ed.

He didn't name a single individual as a moslem-hater. He just said they exist.

That amounts to inuendo.

I call shenanigans.

Posted by mhw 2006-09-25 17:18|| 2006-09-25 17:18|| Front Page Top

#5 Peters started as enlisted. Was commissioned before Vietnam, IIRC - but someone correct that if I don't remember correctly. Has had a pissy attitude toward the brass from day 1.

And as is sometimes -- but by NO means always -- the case with prior enlisteds who are commissioned, he was perhaps promoted beyond what they are very good at -- and I'm sure he was an outstanding NCO and probably junior officer -- he doesn't know how limited his point of view really is.

I used to have to deal with the equivalent in industry. Engineers and programmers who got promoted to, say, project managers or even (shiver) VP Engineering, but never broadened either their skillsets or their scope of vision to match the new job responsibilities.

No offense to either programmers or engineers, who are generally among my favorite people and among whom I count myself. But the pattern is pretty common and it results in some bad bad decisions by people who don't know what they don't know.

It's a shame when this happens, whether in the military or in industry. Because those who start out as grunts can bring great sanity and knowledge to higher echelon roles, if they make the transition well. But when it doesn't "take" .... you get people like Peters, who always are sure they know better than others, but never seem to see their own narrow limitations.

Posted by lotp 2006-09-25 17:27|| 2006-09-25 17:27|| Front Page Top

#6 Cue Rummy's tour de force;

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know.

Superb...

Posted by Tony (UK) 2006-09-25 17:36|| 2006-09-25 17:36|| Front Page Top

#7 lotp

Ralph has done quite well for himself, the cause of freedom, GWOT, etc. He continues to contribute beyond his literary work (good or bad). I'd hate to hang the cook over one batch of soupy Shepherd's pie.

Posted by Besoeker 2006-09-25 17:45|| 2006-09-25 17:45|| Front Page Top

#8 I have to agree with lotp about promoting techinical people to general management. Some people can and should make the transition from one to the other, but those that do it well are about as common as those who can make the transition in the other direction. Technical and management are two very different worldviews, and wise management provides a technical promotion track to parallel that of the management promotion track, specifically to answer the ambition of those whose ability must be acknowledged and rewarded, but for the sake of all not by forcing them to deal with personnel, marketing and budget issues when what they really want to think about is that marvellous new invention/discovery that is tickling their frontal lobes. Mr. Wife made the transition, but that's because he discovered that while he enjoyed the science, turning it into viable and ever more profitable businesses was even more fun... and his old technical friends had to develop a tolerance for his little eccentricity. ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2006-09-25 17:56|| 2006-09-25 17:56|| Front Page Top

#9 I really enjoyed Red Army. Sad to hear it wasn't factual.

Posted by rjschwarz 2006-09-25 17:57|| 2006-09-25 17:57|| Front Page Top

#10 Fortunately, LOTP, My stint in management was just long enough to convince Me and My superiors that it was a bad idea all around. I have far less opportunity for advancement on the technical side, but at least I am capable of doing the job.

Posted by Jackal">Jackal 2006-09-25 19:01|| http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2006-09-25 19:01|| Front Page Top

#11 I'd hate to hang the cook over one batch of soupy Shepherd's pie.

Agreed that Peters has contributed and still does. But when he's off, he's really off and he usually doesn't seem to recognize that IMO.

Posted by lotp 2006-09-25 19:03|| 2006-09-25 19:03|| Front Page Top

#12 LOTP. Gotta agree. I'm an enginner graduated to Project Manager. I rarely get to do any more engineering, mostly financial mgmt, environmental hurdle-jumping, project team hand-holding. Miss the engineering part, but that's the wat it goes. Some of my colleagues can't mentally make the jump, and micromanage the engineering part while their project goes in the shitter

Posted by Frank G 2006-09-25 19:07|| 2006-09-25 19:07|| Front Page Top

#13 enginner? Jeebus

Posted by Frank G 2006-09-25 19:10|| 2006-09-25 19:10|| Front Page Top

#14 Injuneer maybe?

Posted by Besoeker 2006-09-25 19:11|| 2006-09-25 19:11|| Front Page Top

#15 Nothing! I know nothing!

Posted by 6 Schultz 2006-09-25 19:27|| 2006-09-25 19:27|| Front Page Top

#16 but hawaiian-shirt/jeans/boots is still in style for casual PM's :-)

Posted by Frank G 2006-09-25 19:34|| 2006-09-25 19:34|| Front Page Top

#17 Like I said, I've met him, know people that served with him, and have read his stuff. Based on those things, I don't really respect him much at all. I've held off before because folks here seem to like him, especially when he's on the right side of things. But fundamental honesty demands that I no longer hold off.

He was a medicore staff officer. And his conclusions, and methods of drawing them (and grasp of the facts) is tenuous at best.

Sorry guys, even when Peter's is right on an issue, he's seldom right for the right reasons.

Posted by Oldspook 2006-09-25 23:58|| 2006-09-25 23:58|| Front Page Top

23:59 Zenster
23:58 Oldspook
23:50 Super Hose
23:48 gorb
23:46 gorb
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23:38 Zenster
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23:29 Zenster
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23:25 Old Patriot
23:20 Frank G
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23:10 Old Patriot
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22:59 mcsegeek1
22:52 FOTSGreg
22:50 Pappy
22:46 Barbara Skolaut
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22:37 Tony (UK)
22:37 Super Hose