"An Officer Corps That Can't Score"

[Winchester]

"The most curious thing about our four defeats in Fourth Generation WarLebanon, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistanis the utter silence in the American officer corps. Defeat in Vietnam bred a generation of military reformers, men such as Col. John Boyd USAF, Col. Mike Wyly USMC, and Col. Huba Wass de Czege USA, each of whom led a major effort to reorient his service. Today, the landscape is barren. Not a military voice is heard calling for thoughtful, substantive change. Just more money, please."

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/an-officer-corps-that-cant-score/

[jrobe]

Really...your thought....or just a quote?

Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

[Herk Driver]

It's a quote from the article. There is already some rebuttal in various blogs and articles.

Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

[Red Fox]

Lind made this same argument back in 1990 when he spoke to my SOS class. Seems he's singing the same tune 24 years later.

[nsplayr]

I would argue many military officers have concluded that by in large the 4GW conflicts Lind references were political conflicts that were unwinable.

Regardless of the military's performance on those battlefields, there were MANY other factors at play that had as great if not greater influence on the outcome. That's why there is not great outcry for reform...those in the military generally feel they carried out their assigned mission (and sometimes missions that really should not have been in the military's purview) as well as possible given political, time and money constraints. The military is a very good foreign policy tool for a limited number of problems yet we're always looked at like a do-all bandaid that can "fix" any situation the world presents.

Maybe that's not the bold thinking Lind wants out of this generation but that's what I think anyways.

[guineapigfury]

Our concept of civil-military relations* is built largely on the assumption that high-ranking officers will resign rather than carry out policies they know to be foolish. The problem here is that apparently no-one at a high level is willing to resign when faced with objectives they know to be impossible (or perhaps unachievable at a price we are willing to pay, or with methods we are willing to use).

*It also presumes a Congress going about it's business in a responsible manner, which is not what we have.