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2007-07-24 Iraq

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Posted by ryuge 2007-07-24 08:11|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top
File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1 More like General System Failure.

Under the existing laws and regulations, could Ike be Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces Europe? No. Didnât have the time in service or the ârightâ assignments. In order to avoid getting truly incompetents promoted above to their Peter Principle, the âsystemâ also insures that it takes a goat***w to get the right leader in the key position, if that is possible. Even then, the âsystemâ demands that the person ârotateâ out of the position whether the job is accomplished or not. So we end up with something better than failure, but also something less than definitive success. Itâs all modern personnel management. Itâs one thing to do it with a corporation, its another thing to do it with an Army. The consequences are far more damaging. Time and again, its been demonstrated that good managers in peacetime are not necessarily the best leaders in a real combat environment. Especially, those who play the 'system'. However, as Rummy said, you go to war with the Army you have.

And weâre not even addressing the idiocy of allowing others than the Theater Commander run things in theater before the âwarâ is even concluded. All agencies need to be subordinated to and coordinated by a single commander till he determines its time for transition, unencumbered by âpoliticalâ pressure to do so.

For their part, the generals are happy when left to their sandbox.

Thatâs figurative as well as literal. Just look at the issue of soldier blogs that have had more contact with the public than anything generated by battalions of PAO who pander to dead tree media. The oâG2 boys have convinced the clueless general officer corps that it is a threat to âsecurityâ and that something needs to be done about it which in the end means the company command structure, which doesnât have time to censor everyoneâs communications, just shuts it down. So the one piece of technology that allows the military to end run the âgate keepersâ of information and allies of AQ, is throttled. The Generals, no matter how often at the War College they reiterate Clausewitzâs dictum that âwar is an extension of politicsâ, ignore that all wars are fought on two fronts, in theater and at home. Since WWII, the uniform services have âoutsourcedâ the telling of the story completely to MSM. And they wonder why they have to fight in Washington for their operations. They donât understand a basic concept, you can win all the battles and still lose the war. All those lives you think you are saving by blind OPSEC, may well mean that you forfeit victory and therefore make all the sacrifices moot.

Decades of observation of our generals taught me that battlefield lions turn to jellyfish in Washington.

Yeah, that has something to do with the long tradition of âblind subordination to civilian authorityâ. With Congress at 14% approval rating, unless youâre looking for Sulla, it may be something you might not want to change just yet. While it would be entertaining to finally see an righteous outburst by the usual arrogant and self important Senator be countered by a GO with the reply âwhy are we letting you sit here?â, I am not looking forward to it.

The generals point out that they don't control the strategic decisions, that all they can do is to follow orders, that then-secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wouldn't listen to anyone,

Take a look at the force structure today and the flow of the funding. Now compare it to 1997. Do they match? No. It was that same GO Corps that fought for their branch, equipment, procurement, and turf that were providing advice. No wonder the SecDef didnât listen that carefully. The good old boy choir that influenced and directed expenditures for over a decade socked billions into systems that are not being exploited on the real battlefield today, werenât geniuses either. However, they did know how to procure and protect their interests. They were still arguing a Soviet era rationale, rationalized for âupcomingâ threats the need for more âsystemsâ. Where do you think all the new equipment for the grunts would be if we still plowing all those DoD dollars in to fleets of F22s?

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-07-24 10:02|| 2007-07-24 10:02|| Front Page Top

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