I wore tracks on my collar during the days of when we fought Victor Charlie in jungle and rubber. On tracks I rode, on Thunder Road, named not after Robert Mitchum’s story of running moonshine on Kentucky roads, but of exploding mines made from unexploded bombs, and artillery rounds. A lot of this comes to mind as I watch the detailed accounts of combats in Iraq, and Afghanistan. But there are some really big differences I note.
The biggest is that of the extraordinary competence of the Non Commissioned Officer Corps. Of missions they routinely carry out with expertise unheard of in the “old” Lifer-Draftee army. We never trusted a sergeant to do anything outside the range of an officer which downgraded the Butter Bar to do sergeants work without the experience with troop handling that sergeants with time under their belts. It was demeaning and counter-productive.
We ran out of experienced Noncoms early in the war, as by 1961, the WW2 veterans reached the twenty year mark, and emptied the mid ranks of Noncom as they filled the First Sergeant jobs, for which they had not trained. To fill the void, a program was instilled, called the “Shake and Bake” program to take enlisted direct from Advanced Individual Training into a NCO academy. Successful conclusion gave the graduate the rank of E-5. After the dust had settled, studies found that half were damn good, the other half was over-paid.
The NCO training that was built to meet an emergency grew and matured into the Noncommissioned Officer Education System (NCOES) which has produced the best Noncoms in the world. It is because of this, that our troops are so damn good. I am constantly amazed at the degree of detailed knowledge and competence I see on the small screen from what I see against over thirty years of experience. The talking head in front is a distraction, so listen to what the sergeant says.
To back the development of Noncom competence, the Army lifted a training system from the Strategic Air Command (SAC) that we eventually called the Battalion Training Management System (BTMS). BTMS stressed a collective action oriented training mode which insisted that, during breaks in the battle, the Noncom would conduct “hip pocket” instructions that he believe his squad or platoon’s Mission Essential Task List (METL) needed to practice.
I am concerned over maintaining the competence of the NCO corps in the face of the return of the Training Cycle.
http://gordonswar.blogspot.com/2007/12/dumbing-down-force-rotational-training.html
http://gordonswar.blogspot.com/2007/12/concurrent-and-networked-training-cure.html
Another thing that concerns me is that these magnificent sergeants, including those the Marine Corps calls “the Strategic Sergeant”, are being committed outside the range of both radio and fire support. That’s something that the uneducated OJT officer corps of Vietnam never would do. Two to five minutes is more than enough to get 155mm on the way, with mortars filling the wait. It’s a bad idea to send troops into Indian country without eyes in the sky carrying a minigun and maybe some rockets. Something’s not right here.
I also don’t see the grab and pile on tactics developed in Vietnam for Air Cavalry or Leg Infantry riding into hot LZ’s on Slicks with Guns covering the flanks. I don’t see the Air Cavalry role of reconnaissance by force being used by forces with plenty of Cobras, Apaches, and Blackhawks.
The basic tactic of air cavalry we used was to nose around with grunts on the ground or a “Pink Team” made up of a Cobra and an OH-6. The idea was to get a reaction from the bad guys, hold on and pile on. The Air Cavalry Squadron had an infantry platoon, called the “Blues” ready to drop in and join battle. Ordinarily, an infantry generated contact was similarly treated with forces on strip alert or close to a landing zone for pick up. A shot fired at or by a squad at noon could be answered by two or more companies by dusk.
I hear the cry of collateral damage to explain away not using artillery, justifying the cut in guns in direct support of troops in contact by reliance on precision munitions which aren’t available when you need them and upon air strikes dependant upon the approval of CinCWorld to fire. I love the Air Force with their Nape, Snakes, and Nails. But they aren’t responsiveness for those caught in the killing zone.
There’s a break in the chain somewhere/
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Rough Riders Needed
Stopping Stop Loss raised a number of questions about how to staff the force, with some decrying a perceived drop in quality of new troops, and others calling for a draft which at this time is just the ticket to rally the anti-American Left.
I was asked recently by our local radio station, KTRK, if there wasn’t some other solution steeped in our historical playbook. Of course there is, I replied. Haven’t you heard of the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders that TR led up San Juan Hill? TR raised this regiment of cavalry combining his buddies in Ivy Leaguery with some leathery friends from the Old West. Look at pictures of TR in his uniform (Night in the Museum) and his collar brass says USV for US Volunteers. In fact, the raising of regiments was the default American Way of War well into WW2 before the advent of a large standing army.
Where and how can this be done, the Pentagon would wonder to which any Guard or Reserve unit commander could reply with a snort that raising armies, fleets, and air crews is business as usual. A regular service commander is issued his or her troops, while the default Guard or Reserve commander has to stamp his unit out of the ground. When I go to the movies here in Houston, I see ads for the local Air Guard Fighter Squadron. I raised eighty percent of the 5th PSYOP Group (Strategic) in DC within one year of it’s activation back another life time ago.
The fact that the Pentagon raised private military units to avoid calling up the Guard and Reserve units trained for the purpose (and their field grade commanders which might ruin the morale of those on the command list) attests to the fact that units in deed can be stamped out of the ground given proper incentives. In fact, the down side of raising volunteer units historically was that some regiments paid more than others created some healthy competition between units.
Volunteer units made no pretense of sticking around after the war, and hence no threat to established rice bowls. Historically, Regular officers and noncoms were enticed to add starch and spice to the mix of talented amateurs and retreads. This is the way that America used to win it’s wars before careerism raised it’s multiple rotational heads and substituted fighting wars instead of winning them.
I was asked recently by our local radio station, KTRK, if there wasn’t some other solution steeped in our historical playbook. Of course there is, I replied. Haven’t you heard of the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders that TR led up San Juan Hill? TR raised this regiment of cavalry combining his buddies in Ivy Leaguery with some leathery friends from the Old West. Look at pictures of TR in his uniform (Night in the Museum) and his collar brass says USV for US Volunteers. In fact, the raising of regiments was the default American Way of War well into WW2 before the advent of a large standing army.
Where and how can this be done, the Pentagon would wonder to which any Guard or Reserve unit commander could reply with a snort that raising armies, fleets, and air crews is business as usual. A regular service commander is issued his or her troops, while the default Guard or Reserve commander has to stamp his unit out of the ground. When I go to the movies here in Houston, I see ads for the local Air Guard Fighter Squadron. I raised eighty percent of the 5th PSYOP Group (Strategic) in DC within one year of it’s activation back another life time ago.
The fact that the Pentagon raised private military units to avoid calling up the Guard and Reserve units trained for the purpose (and their field grade commanders which might ruin the morale of those on the command list) attests to the fact that units in deed can be stamped out of the ground given proper incentives. In fact, the down side of raising volunteer units historically was that some regiments paid more than others created some healthy competition between units.
Volunteer units made no pretense of sticking around after the war, and hence no threat to established rice bowls. Historically, Regular officers and noncoms were enticed to add starch and spice to the mix of talented amateurs and retreads. This is the way that America used to win it’s wars before careerism raised it’s multiple rotational heads and substituted fighting wars instead of winning them.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Story Telling in Counter Terror
Narration Analysis, the analysis of the story form through which ideologies is expressed and absorbed, is also the study of stories, of story telling, fables, legends, and fiction writing. Story telling is the oldest form of communicating culture since before writing hit the scene. “Daddy, tell me a story” is a phrase that brings warm cozies to the hearts of many a parent. It is the way children learn the roles, rules, and wreckage that happens when trouble this way happens.
The Old and New Testaments, the Koran, and many other religious texts are largely stories in which what is right and wrong is told and which serve as models to follow or avoid to remain in good graces. And it is those models and stories that inspire heroic action by a culture’s standards and which now send young educated Islamic men to blow up market places, temples, schools, and American check points and convoys by blowing themselves up as well.
Story analysis and writing is big business and tons of advice can be had for a price on how to win fame and fortune in fiction or not. Google “fiction”, go to Wikipedia or other Google search on “elements of fiction”, or “fiction writing”, and you will find more than you can afford in time and money in how to write the story. We, however, are concerned with reading someone else’s story with a mind to read their minds and with a chance of changing the story line to something less lethal.
We look to fiction as the real stories we like most fit the mold of fiction, real reality is more Old Testament than New, messy, tragic, and full of sex, violence, betrayal, triumph, and occasionally, redemption. These are elements of Plot which starts with a situation; a problem is introduced resulting in a rising of action to a climax and a resolution of the problem.
The stories of Christ, Mohammed, Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Jimmy Carter, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln regardless of flavor of virtue are Characters whose conflict with an opponent (Hero vs. Villain, Protagonist vs. Antagonist) is what Plot is all about. Joseph Campbell (Google) is considered the foremost experts on Heroes and Villains, what they do, the problems they get into and out of, written in many of his works such as “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” which describes what is called the Hero’s Voyage.
The Narration Analyst uses the tools of Transactional Heroes, Villains and role switches, Plots, Conspiracies, Inverse Attribution, and Stamp collecting to add meat to the bones of plot and character.
Hollywood, Bollywood, Broadway, and books, movies, TV, and comics have conditioned the modern citizen to story form, heroes, villains, plots, twists, climaxes, and painted backdrops galore and have created an unrealistic expectation that life should fit fiction. We believe in marriage till death do part, of retirement with gold watch and pension, of justice in court, and a level playing field when the reality is more Old Testament than New, more Soprano than Sainthood, without the resolution of Law and Order or CSI and more like Soap, endless, and pointless. Which is why we like good stories.
In order to effectively make war, business, and/or love, it is essential to know the stories of friend and foe. We need to know who are the counterparts of Paul Bunyon, Pecos Bill, Thor, Wodin, Ulysses, Snively Whiplash, Simon Lagree, Peter Pan, and Captain Hook.
The Old and New Testaments, the Koran, and many other religious texts are largely stories in which what is right and wrong is told and which serve as models to follow or avoid to remain in good graces. And it is those models and stories that inspire heroic action by a culture’s standards and which now send young educated Islamic men to blow up market places, temples, schools, and American check points and convoys by blowing themselves up as well.
Story analysis and writing is big business and tons of advice can be had for a price on how to win fame and fortune in fiction or not. Google “fiction”, go to Wikipedia or other Google search on “elements of fiction”, or “fiction writing”, and you will find more than you can afford in time and money in how to write the story. We, however, are concerned with reading someone else’s story with a mind to read their minds and with a chance of changing the story line to something less lethal.
We look to fiction as the real stories we like most fit the mold of fiction, real reality is more Old Testament than New, messy, tragic, and full of sex, violence, betrayal, triumph, and occasionally, redemption. These are elements of Plot which starts with a situation; a problem is introduced resulting in a rising of action to a climax and a resolution of the problem.
The stories of Christ, Mohammed, Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Jimmy Carter, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln regardless of flavor of virtue are Characters whose conflict with an opponent (Hero vs. Villain, Protagonist vs. Antagonist) is what Plot is all about. Joseph Campbell (Google) is considered the foremost experts on Heroes and Villains, what they do, the problems they get into and out of, written in many of his works such as “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” which describes what is called the Hero’s Voyage.
The Narration Analyst uses the tools of Transactional Heroes, Villains and role switches, Plots, Conspiracies, Inverse Attribution, and Stamp collecting to add meat to the bones of plot and character.
Hollywood, Bollywood, Broadway, and books, movies, TV, and comics have conditioned the modern citizen to story form, heroes, villains, plots, twists, climaxes, and painted backdrops galore and have created an unrealistic expectation that life should fit fiction. We believe in marriage till death do part, of retirement with gold watch and pension, of justice in court, and a level playing field when the reality is more Old Testament than New, more Soprano than Sainthood, without the resolution of Law and Order or CSI and more like Soap, endless, and pointless. Which is why we like good stories.
In order to effectively make war, business, and/or love, it is essential to know the stories of friend and foe. We need to know who are the counterparts of Paul Bunyon, Pecos Bill, Thor, Wodin, Ulysses, Snively Whiplash, Simon Lagree, Peter Pan, and Captain Hook.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Inverse Attribution and Brown Stamps in Terror
HUEY P LONG ON THE RICH
Narrative Analysis, the analysis of the story form through which ideologies is expressed and absorbed, can also be factored by the Truthiness Factor, first introduced by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report and by the Brown Stamp Flavor favored in Stamp collection by True Believers.
CARLIN ON STUPID PEOPLE
A basic law in the science of BS, in the application of Truthiness, is called the Law of Inverse Attribution. We see used car dealers with the title “Honest”, sturdy paper towels, unbreakable glass, the least number of dropped calls, etc. The First Law of Attribution is to Tout Ones Least Best Attribute, the honesty of the used car dealer, politician, lowest cost, etc. These attributes may, in fact, be positive but they are likely to lowest on the list of positive attributes. Paper towels are cheap, disposable, but hardly sturdy. The British Monarchy fought WW1 and WW2 for democracy in order to preserve their empire. Great empire, but it as such wasn’t a democracy.
The Second Law of Attribution is that of blaming the opposition with one’s worst attribute. “My opponent is a crook” is a sure fire giveaway. “The President has no plan” say the plan-less Democrats. The President blames the Democrats for having no plan which confirms that he doesn’t have one either.
So when someone, like the IRS comes to you and says “I’m here to help you” the BOHICA factor is being invoked.
Al Qaeda and the other religious fanatics, seeking to collect Red and White stamps, assert that they are coming to “rescue” their target audience from rampant sexuality and corruption, for which the reward for those whose stamps are stamped is two dozen virgins in Paradise. An Arab (or for that matter, any politician) who rants about corrupt governments is, of course, a subject matter expert.
Combining the Laws of Inverse Attribution together with Stamp collecting and Role Switching, we come to the most frequently used Brown Stamp or Brown Stamp Collection consisting of a wide variety of Red, White and Blue Stamps. Blue Stamps are not liberal in the modern connotation but in one a bit older, associated with Prohibition and the term “Blue Nose” indicative of moral uppityness.
Freud posits three most common stages of child development as Oral, Anal, and Phallic during which trauma can cause all or part of the personal development to freeze or malfunction marking the person for life as Oral, Anal, or Phallic. Most Brats have a strong Oral dent. Traumas occurring in the Anal phase where society demands that the Child stop shitting at will and do it in the proper place and introduce the first significant socialization in the Child.
Trauma in the Anal phase commonly produces two variants, Anal Retentive and Anal Expletive. One is concerned with retaining the pleasure of a good shit until society’s designate and proper shitting custom has been observed. The Anal Expletive gains additional pleasure in violating the appropriate shit custom and goes through life shitting on perfectly clean things while the Anal Retentive goes through life cleaning up shit that isn’t there. These two share a pretty dark view of the world, and the synergy between them is a major driving factor in Narrative development. And sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference as it appears that they often switch sides.
“Clean up the environment” is an inverse attribution by those whose manner of dress and behavior is peacefully demonstrated with Molotov cocktail and baseball bat through Starbuck windows. “Law and Order” inversely respond the black helmeted riot police. The SS at the Death Camps were obsessed with cleanliness as the butchered their quarry in the name of purification of the German Race and Culture. In fact, the Nazis, the Chinese Communists, and certain factions on the TV make their stand against sexual degeneration, gay marriage, pornography, racial purity, the White Race, etc. They with the poof-poof hair, flashy dress, and copy of the Authoritative book such as Mao’s Red Book in hand.
On the surface Right Wing/Conservative propaganda tends towards the Anal Retentive, with Left Wing propaganda tends to the Anal Expletive. As such the Right represents the dysfunctional Daddy and the Left the dysfunctional Mommy. The first beats, the second manipulates, bitches, whines and nags. Add alcohol, stir and the police get a domestic disturbance call. Like the one in Iraq.
Conservatism or Liberalism, in this sense does not refer to any specific dogma, doctrine or ideology, but to the psychological position of the advocate. Conservative Communists act the same way a Catholic conservatives on pretty much the same issues. In fact, there are very few really true ideologies that cannot be broken down into the basic typology of Narrative Analysis, and the language used is not based on rational thought but upon Buzziology.
But that’s another story,
Narrative Analysis, the analysis of the story form through which ideologies is expressed and absorbed, can also be factored by the Truthiness Factor, first introduced by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report and by the Brown Stamp Flavor favored in Stamp collection by True Believers.
CARLIN ON STUPID PEOPLE
A basic law in the science of BS, in the application of Truthiness, is called the Law of Inverse Attribution. We see used car dealers with the title “Honest”, sturdy paper towels, unbreakable glass, the least number of dropped calls, etc. The First Law of Attribution is to Tout Ones Least Best Attribute, the honesty of the used car dealer, politician, lowest cost, etc. These attributes may, in fact, be positive but they are likely to lowest on the list of positive attributes. Paper towels are cheap, disposable, but hardly sturdy. The British Monarchy fought WW1 and WW2 for democracy in order to preserve their empire. Great empire, but it as such wasn’t a democracy.
 |
| The justification for victimization of the Germans is the victimization of the Jews? |
So when someone, like the IRS comes to you and says “I’m here to help you” the BOHICA factor is being invoked.
Al Qaeda and the other religious fanatics, seeking to collect Red and White stamps, assert that they are coming to “rescue” their target audience from rampant sexuality and corruption, for which the reward for those whose stamps are stamped is two dozen virgins in Paradise. An Arab (or for that matter, any politician) who rants about corrupt governments is, of course, a subject matter expert.
Combining the Laws of Inverse Attribution together with Stamp collecting and Role Switching, we come to the most frequently used Brown Stamp or Brown Stamp Collection consisting of a wide variety of Red, White and Blue Stamps. Blue Stamps are not liberal in the modern connotation but in one a bit older, associated with Prohibition and the term “Blue Nose” indicative of moral uppityness.
 | ||
|
Trauma in the Anal phase commonly produces two variants, Anal Retentive and Anal Expletive. One is concerned with retaining the pleasure of a good shit until society’s designate and proper shitting custom has been observed. The Anal Expletive gains additional pleasure in violating the appropriate shit custom and goes through life shitting on perfectly clean things while the Anal Retentive goes through life cleaning up shit that isn’t there. These two share a pretty dark view of the world, and the synergy between them is a major driving factor in Narrative development. And sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference as it appears that they often switch sides.
“Clean up the environment” is an inverse attribution by those whose manner of dress and behavior is peacefully demonstrated with Molotov cocktail and baseball bat through Starbuck windows. “Law and Order” inversely respond the black helmeted riot police. The SS at the Death Camps were obsessed with cleanliness as the butchered their quarry in the name of purification of the German Race and Culture. In fact, the Nazis, the Chinese Communists, and certain factions on the TV make their stand against sexual degeneration, gay marriage, pornography, racial purity, the White Race, etc. They with the poof-poof hair, flashy dress, and copy of the Authoritative book such as Mao’s Red Book in hand.
On the surface Right Wing/Conservative propaganda tends towards the Anal Retentive, with Left Wing propaganda tends to the Anal Expletive. As such the Right represents the dysfunctional Daddy and the Left the dysfunctional Mommy. The first beats, the second manipulates, bitches, whines and nags. Add alcohol, stir and the police get a domestic disturbance call. Like the one in Iraq.
Conservatism or Liberalism, in this sense does not refer to any specific dogma, doctrine or ideology, but to the psychological position of the advocate. Conservative Communists act the same way a Catholic conservatives on pretty much the same issues. In fact, there are very few really true ideologies that cannot be broken down into the basic typology of Narrative Analysis, and the language used is not based on rational thought but upon Buzziology.
But that’s another story,
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Quadrennial Defense Rubbish
On February 2006, SecDef Rumsfeld signed off on the Quadrennial Defense Review Report. This is a typical Pentagon report in which the competing demands of the various factions within the various services staple their druthers under a cover sheet that blesses them all without resolving the differences between them. For example, the preface of the QDR lists a number of the “shift of interest:” including the following:
-From “one size fits all” deterrence - to tailored deterrence for rouge powers, terrorist networks, and near-peer competitors.
-From threat based planning – to capabilities planning.
-From focus on kinetics – to focus on effects.
-From static defense, garrison forces – to mobile, expeditionary operations.
-From battle ready forces (peace) – to battle hardened forces (war)
-From large institutional forces (tail) – to more powerful operational capabilities (teeth).
-From forces that need to deconflict – to integrated, interdependent forces.
-From exposed forces forward – to reaching back to CONUS to support expeditionary forces.
-From set-piece maneuver and mass – to agility and precision.
-From predetermined force packages – to tailored flexible forces.
The “From-To” dichotomy creates a false picture of what was in place in order to provide a nifty counterpart for the new Light Fantastic. Combat veterans of the last fifty years would dispute the assertion that their battles were set-piece, needing “deconfliction” to maneuver, and that their battles were fought from static garrisons. This never happened.
What is more important is that the “to’s” are contradictory. The rejection of “one size fits all”, flies in the face of the current Army plan to create “one size fits all” modular expeditionary brigades. Likewise, the other services are devising identical “expeditionary” forces.
Of greatest oddity is the assertion that threats are to be ignored and focus should be made on effects and capabilities. Rogue powers, networks, and near-peer competitors are very different threats each with differing strengths and weaknesses. It is contradictory to prattle on about intelligence integration if the intelligence is going to be ignored in favor of “capability and effects”.
Likewise, basing forces stateside (CONUS) presumes that forces can be deployed faster to the Muddle East from Kansas than Germany or Kuwait. The intent here is to rotate one size fits all modular brigades to “Spartan” exposed bases without adequate logistics support while the family remains in Kansas so the spouse doesn’t have to change the drapes every PCS. Small wonder the divorce rate is sky rocketing. This smacks of Dien Bien Phu and Little Big Horn.
Only a corporate whiz kid could come up with the notion that out-sourcing the logistics “tail” would change a ton of ammo into a pound. In the event that we have to fight a near-peer, the needs for artillery ammunition will once again drive the logistics train. The default calculations (the old FM 101-10-1) for near-peer warfare call for an average of one ton of artillery ammunition per rifle squad or tank across a near-peer battlefield. This equates to ten tons per gun per day. Ten tons per gun means one 5-ton truck with 5-ton trailer on the road every day which requires engineer support to maintain the roads, MP’s to secure the routes, fuel dumps and pipelines, and mechanics with spare parts to support the whole structure. Tails tend to be five to ten times the size of the teeth, even in the VC/NVA forces operating against us in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
In Iraq, Field Artillery battalions are being used as infantry leaving convoys without artillery support in the mounting pace of ambushes. Meanwhile, unarmed civilians are being shot up, decapitated, and charred in convoys sent in what is best described as behind enemy lines. That is murder by government decree.
This QDR is more an agreement to disagree between the defense department factions than a Chinese Menu. Rumsfeld likely did not read it, or maybe he didn’t care as he likely he had no intention to let the DoD staff think they knew what they were going to do. To do would ruin his fun in jerking the brass around. The QDR is a mish mash more like the Emperor’s New Clothes than coherent policy. If implemented as intended, the entire war making capability will be rendered useless and impotent.
Of lasting concern is the focus of DoD’s focus “from battle ready (peace) to battle hardened (war)” which is another way of stating that DoD intends to wage war without end which goes maintaining the problem so the warrior stays in business.
Congress has the powers to determine what the shape of the military is to be. Given the utter nonsense in the QDR, perhaps it is time for Congress to form a Blue Ribbon Panel of a wide variety of combat veterans, and other experts from the diplomatic community and the defense industry to determine what kind we need. This QDR continues the disastrous policies that have led to the edge of defeat despite having the best trained, best equipped, best led, and best motivated combat force this nation has ever fielded.
-From “one size fits all” deterrence - to tailored deterrence for rouge powers, terrorist networks, and near-peer competitors.
-From threat based planning – to capabilities planning.
-From focus on kinetics – to focus on effects.
-From static defense, garrison forces – to mobile, expeditionary operations.
-From battle ready forces (peace) – to battle hardened forces (war)
-From large institutional forces (tail) – to more powerful operational capabilities (teeth).
-From forces that need to deconflict – to integrated, interdependent forces.
-From exposed forces forward – to reaching back to CONUS to support expeditionary forces.
-From set-piece maneuver and mass – to agility and precision.
-From predetermined force packages – to tailored flexible forces.
The “From-To” dichotomy creates a false picture of what was in place in order to provide a nifty counterpart for the new Light Fantastic. Combat veterans of the last fifty years would dispute the assertion that their battles were set-piece, needing “deconfliction” to maneuver, and that their battles were fought from static garrisons. This never happened.
What is more important is that the “to’s” are contradictory. The rejection of “one size fits all”, flies in the face of the current Army plan to create “one size fits all” modular expeditionary brigades. Likewise, the other services are devising identical “expeditionary” forces.
Of greatest oddity is the assertion that threats are to be ignored and focus should be made on effects and capabilities. Rogue powers, networks, and near-peer competitors are very different threats each with differing strengths and weaknesses. It is contradictory to prattle on about intelligence integration if the intelligence is going to be ignored in favor of “capability and effects”.
Likewise, basing forces stateside (CONUS) presumes that forces can be deployed faster to the Muddle East from Kansas than Germany or Kuwait. The intent here is to rotate one size fits all modular brigades to “Spartan” exposed bases without adequate logistics support while the family remains in Kansas so the spouse doesn’t have to change the drapes every PCS. Small wonder the divorce rate is sky rocketing. This smacks of Dien Bien Phu and Little Big Horn.
Only a corporate whiz kid could come up with the notion that out-sourcing the logistics “tail” would change a ton of ammo into a pound. In the event that we have to fight a near-peer, the needs for artillery ammunition will once again drive the logistics train. The default calculations (the old FM 101-10-1) for near-peer warfare call for an average of one ton of artillery ammunition per rifle squad or tank across a near-peer battlefield. This equates to ten tons per gun per day. Ten tons per gun means one 5-ton truck with 5-ton trailer on the road every day which requires engineer support to maintain the roads, MP’s to secure the routes, fuel dumps and pipelines, and mechanics with spare parts to support the whole structure. Tails tend to be five to ten times the size of the teeth, even in the VC/NVA forces operating against us in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
In Iraq, Field Artillery battalions are being used as infantry leaving convoys without artillery support in the mounting pace of ambushes. Meanwhile, unarmed civilians are being shot up, decapitated, and charred in convoys sent in what is best described as behind enemy lines. That is murder by government decree.
This QDR is more an agreement to disagree between the defense department factions than a Chinese Menu. Rumsfeld likely did not read it, or maybe he didn’t care as he likely he had no intention to let the DoD staff think they knew what they were going to do. To do would ruin his fun in jerking the brass around. The QDR is a mish mash more like the Emperor’s New Clothes than coherent policy. If implemented as intended, the entire war making capability will be rendered useless and impotent.
Of lasting concern is the focus of DoD’s focus “from battle ready (peace) to battle hardened (war)” which is another way of stating that DoD intends to wage war without end which goes maintaining the problem so the warrior stays in business.
Congress has the powers to determine what the shape of the military is to be. Given the utter nonsense in the QDR, perhaps it is time for Congress to form a Blue Ribbon Panel of a wide variety of combat veterans, and other experts from the diplomatic community and the defense industry to determine what kind we need. This QDR continues the disastrous policies that have led to the edge of defeat despite having the best trained, best equipped, best led, and best motivated combat force this nation has ever fielded.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Bush's Bad Rap
Bush and Rumsfeld are taking the wrath of the chattering classes on the nose and the mass defection of the willing and supportive. Military punditry posits courses of actions tagged Go short, go big, go long, or get out. All seem to accept the status rotative that destabilizes any effort regardless of intent. Some say that the US military was trained for the wrong war and can’t fight the right one. It is true that Rumsfeld announced on Saddams fall that the Ghost of Vietnam was dead and that the Transformed Light Fantastic had won.
It is true that Transformation wasn't Rumsfeld's idea, and the evil that it has wrought would have visited itself upon either Democratic Presidential candidate had either of them won. There was, and is, a sinister synergistic effect between the Pentagon's union protectionism of Elitist Warriorism and Neo-Conservatism's fetish for privatization. Both don't want Warriors to do un-warrior non-union jobs like logistics, intelligence, civil affairs and military government, psychological operations, or military police.
The Pentagon's penchant for stabilized unit rotation to maintain Warrior unit cohesion has necessitated unstabilized rotation and cohesion in non-union jobs and defeated the attempts of the Warrior class to maintain stability in Iraq and would have done so with the proper ratio between troops and Iraqis. What is a tribute to the quality of the leadership of the troops in the field is the ability to function efficiently with remarkable effectiveness given the chaotic state of the command, control, and support structure in support of the rotating brigades.
The definitive study on psychological war "Cohesion and Disintegration of the Wehrmacht" by Berelson and Janowitz held that as long as the troops' primary group was intact and a basic faith in Germany remained, the troops would fight on. A primary group is rarely larger than a company. The concept of unit rotation for combat units benefits from this principle, but the process of derivative "units" cherry picked from the Guard and Reserve can only be interpreted as an attempt to wreck the reserves. Nice try, but our Guard and Reserve troops have weathered this and have soldiered on with an attendant cost in PTSD.
The disintegration of Iraq can be reversed by reversing the rotation of units and mobilizing the proper command structure for stability operations from the Guard and Reserves as intended by the Congress and all previous planning. In short, go there and come back with their shields or on them. This is war, not a live fire exercise.
It is true that Transformation wasn't Rumsfeld's idea, and the evil that it has wrought would have visited itself upon either Democratic Presidential candidate had either of them won. There was, and is, a sinister synergistic effect between the Pentagon's union protectionism of Elitist Warriorism and Neo-Conservatism's fetish for privatization. Both don't want Warriors to do un-warrior non-union jobs like logistics, intelligence, civil affairs and military government, psychological operations, or military police.
The Pentagon's penchant for stabilized unit rotation to maintain Warrior unit cohesion has necessitated unstabilized rotation and cohesion in non-union jobs and defeated the attempts of the Warrior class to maintain stability in Iraq and would have done so with the proper ratio between troops and Iraqis. What is a tribute to the quality of the leadership of the troops in the field is the ability to function efficiently with remarkable effectiveness given the chaotic state of the command, control, and support structure in support of the rotating brigades.
The definitive study on psychological war "Cohesion and Disintegration of the Wehrmacht" by Berelson and Janowitz held that as long as the troops' primary group was intact and a basic faith in Germany remained, the troops would fight on. A primary group is rarely larger than a company. The concept of unit rotation for combat units benefits from this principle, but the process of derivative "units" cherry picked from the Guard and Reserve can only be interpreted as an attempt to wreck the reserves. Nice try, but our Guard and Reserve troops have weathered this and have soldiered on with an attendant cost in PTSD.
The disintegration of Iraq can be reversed by reversing the rotation of units and mobilizing the proper command structure for stability operations from the Guard and Reserves as intended by the Congress and all previous planning. In short, go there and come back with their shields or on them. This is war, not a live fire exercise.
Saturday, December 9, 2006
Military Review (MR) on Counter Insurgency
I recommend to all and sundry to read the current edition of Military Review, a special edition regarding Counter Insurgency (COIN). This compilation is a comprehensive, albeit sometimes excessively verbose, summary of the essence of how to deal with circumstance such as the current unpleasant. In short, it is good governance that is the objective of Counter-Insurgency. It is water, food, income, and a modicum of security.
I agree, but say that such is the same role for the military within the context of any war. It is not a grunt on the ground, but a cop on the beat that counts. A cop backed by courts and sanctions that effectively enforce policies supportive of the victors’ best interests. It means, most often, enforcing the treaties they sign.
After Treaty of Westphalia (1648), Europe tried to ameliorate the barbarities of warfare that had nothing to do with combat operations. Rape, pillage, and plunder and butchery of the beaten became less politically correct as Europe moved into the Enlightenment. And as a practical matter, given constant switches of conquest, it became useful to use the existing political structures including the mayor, council, courts and cops. Clausewitz wrote his gaggle of aphorisms after the Napoleonic Wars when thing appeared to have returned to enlightened normality and assumed that defeat of the enemy’s military constituted victory in war. He forgot about the part where the defeated were typically sold into slavery or gutted for fun or sacrifice.
Islam did not go through the Enlightenment, and after centuries of Turkish occupation, had forgotten their own enlightened period under the Caliphates before the Turks, Mongols and Crusaders came. And the Pentagon forgot, if they even knew, of the necessity for maintaining the pride of the enemy’s warriors by recruiting them into the King’s service. As well as their cops, courts, and sanctions, upgraded of course by the introduction of the Common Law (or Code Napoleon) .
US Civil Affairs/Military Government (CAMG) units in WW2 certainly understood the need for maintaining the appearance of continuity. Unfortunately the term “military government” became politically incorrect although the Civil Affairs units themselves were not changed, but put out to pasture by a Warrior cult. And in Iraq, Civil Affairs were committed piecemeal and their advice ignored by the Warriors on top.
Fortunately, the US Army’s educational system for senior officers includes full spectrum conflict resolution with the Chosen Few groomed at Georgetown and given Masters degrees in international relations. Military Review cites the commanders of the 101st Airborne, and the 1st Cavalry (my old unit) as excellent examples of how governance and the minimum services of life defeat insurgency quicker and cheaper than firepower. In Sadr City, there was a near perfect correlation between sewage in the streets with terrorist cells and incidents.
Returning vets from Iraq, however, note that once they get the terrorist situation under control, they or their next higher gets “rotated” out and new guys come in with a new way of doing business. No way to win a war.
The COIN word is back in vogue like it was before CORDs. The word Counter Insurgency is a double negative which isn’t a positive. We defeat the Iraqi insurgents over and over again, just as the Israelis do to the Palestinian terrorists. It doesn’t do any good. And the insurgents are encouraged by Hitler’s dogma of “Triumph of the Will”.
I agree, but say that such is the same role for the military within the context of any war. It is not a grunt on the ground, but a cop on the beat that counts. A cop backed by courts and sanctions that effectively enforce policies supportive of the victors’ best interests. It means, most often, enforcing the treaties they sign.
After Treaty of Westphalia (1648), Europe tried to ameliorate the barbarities of warfare that had nothing to do with combat operations. Rape, pillage, and plunder and butchery of the beaten became less politically correct as Europe moved into the Enlightenment. And as a practical matter, given constant switches of conquest, it became useful to use the existing political structures including the mayor, council, courts and cops. Clausewitz wrote his gaggle of aphorisms after the Napoleonic Wars when thing appeared to have returned to enlightened normality and assumed that defeat of the enemy’s military constituted victory in war. He forgot about the part where the defeated were typically sold into slavery or gutted for fun or sacrifice.
Islam did not go through the Enlightenment, and after centuries of Turkish occupation, had forgotten their own enlightened period under the Caliphates before the Turks, Mongols and Crusaders came. And the Pentagon forgot, if they even knew, of the necessity for maintaining the pride of the enemy’s warriors by recruiting them into the King’s service. As well as their cops, courts, and sanctions, upgraded of course by the introduction of the Common Law (or Code Napoleon) .
US Civil Affairs/Military Government (CAMG) units in WW2 certainly understood the need for maintaining the appearance of continuity. Unfortunately the term “military government” became politically incorrect although the Civil Affairs units themselves were not changed, but put out to pasture by a Warrior cult. And in Iraq, Civil Affairs were committed piecemeal and their advice ignored by the Warriors on top.
Fortunately, the US Army’s educational system for senior officers includes full spectrum conflict resolution with the Chosen Few groomed at Georgetown and given Masters degrees in international relations. Military Review cites the commanders of the 101st Airborne, and the 1st Cavalry (my old unit) as excellent examples of how governance and the minimum services of life defeat insurgency quicker and cheaper than firepower. In Sadr City, there was a near perfect correlation between sewage in the streets with terrorist cells and incidents.
Returning vets from Iraq, however, note that once they get the terrorist situation under control, they or their next higher gets “rotated” out and new guys come in with a new way of doing business. No way to win a war.
The COIN word is back in vogue like it was before CORDs. The word Counter Insurgency is a double negative which isn’t a positive. We defeat the Iraqi insurgents over and over again, just as the Israelis do to the Palestinian terrorists. It doesn’t do any good. And the insurgents are encouraged by Hitler’s dogma of “Triumph of the Will”.
Friday, December 8, 2006
Volunteers for Victory
The Baker Report misses the point, the Sunnis want their cut of the oil money and fear the Sunnis will not only hog the profits but use it to fund pay back ethnic cleansing. The Neo-Cons want to convert the Muddle East into the Middle West with Texas style governance … where government does what it is told. The Pentagon is absorbed in rotating O-6 command slots in and out of the combat zone to blood the troops and sharpen the competition for flag rank. The only clown in the room calling for victory is W, and no one cares.
The Neo-Con penchant for privatization of warfare inadvertently coincided with the Pentagon’s long awaited plan to disarm the threat to their market position as Warriors to the World represented by the combat experienced National Guard and Reserves. This is a natural course of action for such unions as the Teamsters, AMA, ABA and plumbers union, and the Pentagon considers the military as a closed union shop with the Guard and Reserves seasonal workers at best, fit for non union jobs such as military intelligence, psychological warfare, civil affairs, logistics, etc. Better a contractor in civilian clothes getting blown away than a uniformed citizen raising the specter that the national defense can be done at one sixth the cost.
In short, W got the shorts and the GOP took up the short end in the current election. The lunatic left is foaming at the mouth at the prospect that Haight Ashbury might rise again, Woodstock reborn, and that Flower Power will reign. Talk of the draft has surfaced again despite the fundamental fact that the first trained unwilling private won’t show up on the battlefield for two years, ignoring the fact that we need trained troops for the full spectrum of rank and experience.
The principal obstacle to victory in the Muddle East is the Pentagon. Victory can be obtained by cutting them out of the action by starting a full spectrum reclassification of the civil service in the place while reallocating the office space based on relevant irrelevancy. Next the chain of command of troops in the field must go direct from the President to the commanders in the field. That will totally absorb the Pentagon and the war can be prosecuted in a professional fashion.
As for raising the needed troops, we only need to revert to the Old Fashioned Way of War … by calling for Volunteer units like the Rough Riders and asking the governors of the states to raise the necessary troops called for by the commanders in the field. A full brigade of Middle Eastern linguists could be raised here in Houston in about a month with detachments of already trained vets deployable in ninety days with the remainder deployed within nine months. They would be federalized but not in the other components which isn’t much different than currently mobilized Guard and Reserve personnel.
The Neo-Con penchant for privatization of warfare inadvertently coincided with the Pentagon’s long awaited plan to disarm the threat to their market position as Warriors to the World represented by the combat experienced National Guard and Reserves. This is a natural course of action for such unions as the Teamsters, AMA, ABA and plumbers union, and the Pentagon considers the military as a closed union shop with the Guard and Reserves seasonal workers at best, fit for non union jobs such as military intelligence, psychological warfare, civil affairs, logistics, etc. Better a contractor in civilian clothes getting blown away than a uniformed citizen raising the specter that the national defense can be done at one sixth the cost.
In short, W got the shorts and the GOP took up the short end in the current election. The lunatic left is foaming at the mouth at the prospect that Haight Ashbury might rise again, Woodstock reborn, and that Flower Power will reign. Talk of the draft has surfaced again despite the fundamental fact that the first trained unwilling private won’t show up on the battlefield for two years, ignoring the fact that we need trained troops for the full spectrum of rank and experience.
The principal obstacle to victory in the Muddle East is the Pentagon. Victory can be obtained by cutting them out of the action by starting a full spectrum reclassification of the civil service in the place while reallocating the office space based on relevant irrelevancy. Next the chain of command of troops in the field must go direct from the President to the commanders in the field. That will totally absorb the Pentagon and the war can be prosecuted in a professional fashion.
As for raising the needed troops, we only need to revert to the Old Fashioned Way of War … by calling for Volunteer units like the Rough Riders and asking the governors of the states to raise the necessary troops called for by the commanders in the field. A full brigade of Middle Eastern linguists could be raised here in Houston in about a month with detachments of already trained vets deployable in ninety days with the remainder deployed within nine months. They would be federalized but not in the other components which isn’t much different than currently mobilized Guard and Reserve personnel.
America's Neglected Empire - the UN
FDR, Harry and Eleanor built the UN as a US clone in order for the US to provide governance to the world without appearing to do so, particularly to the isolationist Red stater. Unfortunately, the isolationist has devolved into the unilateralist and we find ourselves crafting an increasingly entangled web of bilateral treaties, the kind that George Washington warned us of.
FDR, Harry and Eleanor knew an effective American world empire would require imperial American citizenship and taxation with representation and that neither would pass muster in the US Senate or the necessary three quarters of the state legislatures needed to change the Constitution where sovereignty is treated as if it were virginity.
Consequently the UN Security Council was created to maintain the good old boy network at the top and to provide the illusion of allowing the rest of the world participation in good old boy status. And, the General Assembly was created in a similar fashion to fashion the appearance of true governance, while segregating international treaty negotiations with behind the door legislative negotiations to hide the normally messy underpinnings of politics.
Once the little problem of the Soviets Unions’ attempt to deprive the US as the normal leader of the world failed in the Cold War, work can proceed on world governance provide by the US as originally intended. The US, however, lacks the necessary focus to proceed towards imperial dominance, as the American electorate has Attention Deficit Disorder when it comes to a consistent imperial policy. After all, the rest of the world is full of foreigners.
Once, isolationism could be defined as letting each nation go its’ own way and if trouble came, we insisted on talking about a solution. In unilateralism, we’ll tell them what the solution is giving the appearance that we might actually step into the imperial throne. Unfortunately as the next hot topic on the networks distracts the electorate, like the Chandra Levy controversy, or Bill Clintons blow job, and the rest of the world is dismayed, distraught, and disappointed that the imperial nabob with the nuclear football trades world peace and prosperity for a crusade against gay marriage.
FDR could not know, however, that the linchpin of world empire is an imperial army. Any decent empire in days past in our situation would have already formed the Iraqi Republican Guard with US officers and NCOs like the Brits did in India. An ambitious officer seeking medals, combat experience, and a heavy warrior reputation in Victoria’s British Empire would have gotten himself a commission in Her Imperial Majesty’s Iraqi Army, and taken command of the best the Iraqis had.
The Brits usually hired the best their former enemies had in the way of troops, trained them with the best NCOs in history and a century later these units would be more British than the British. Alas, the Pentagon, and it’s predecessor, the War Department, would never stand for an American officer having his career managed by the officer himself. It would unbalance the rotation of the fair haired version of the day that gives the personnel weenie the illusion of potence.
While it may seem far fetched that the fortunes of the nation and global peace and prosperity would be sacrificed over such trivia as centralized career management, it should be remembered that the military attracts, retains, and promotes the Anal Retentive, whose central obsession is micromanagement. And that warriors, like doctors, lawyers, candle stick makers, and plumbers seek the respect of their peers, and a steadily increasing pay check.
And that accounts for the failure of the Project for the New American Empire. The Pentagons’ narrow career centric order of battle focused on creating career enhancing Brigade Combat Teams without a cohesive support structure or coherent strategy to be rotated in and out of the combat zone leaving no consistent or stable effect on the battlefield in order to stabilize the opportunity for command in combat for selected field grade officers. This also aimed at reducing the trauma on the military family as permanent changes of station means changing schools for the kids and getting new drapes.
There is, however, hope for the future. US Special Operations Command, and the Special Forces in particular are specifically trained to operate in diverse situations and to form and lead foreign forces. And inasmuch as the likely hood of an invasion of the US mainland taking place in any time soon, Special Operations should be formed as a separate service and the mission, functions and equipment of the Army and Air Force, less strategic forces, be transferred to the Reserves and Guard.
The Congress should also allow US officers and NCOs to serve in Blue Hat capacities as in the manner of the British such as “Chinese” Gordon who commanded a Chinese
Army, before losing his head leading a Sudanese one. UN peace keeping operations are a goat rope with differing national agendas and rules of engagement. Given the opportunity for a US officer to gain promotion and retirement points, these problems would achieve short shrift.
FDR, Harry and Eleanor knew an effective American world empire would require imperial American citizenship and taxation with representation and that neither would pass muster in the US Senate or the necessary three quarters of the state legislatures needed to change the Constitution where sovereignty is treated as if it were virginity.
Consequently the UN Security Council was created to maintain the good old boy network at the top and to provide the illusion of allowing the rest of the world participation in good old boy status. And, the General Assembly was created in a similar fashion to fashion the appearance of true governance, while segregating international treaty negotiations with behind the door legislative negotiations to hide the normally messy underpinnings of politics.
Once the little problem of the Soviets Unions’ attempt to deprive the US as the normal leader of the world failed in the Cold War, work can proceed on world governance provide by the US as originally intended. The US, however, lacks the necessary focus to proceed towards imperial dominance, as the American electorate has Attention Deficit Disorder when it comes to a consistent imperial policy. After all, the rest of the world is full of foreigners.
Once, isolationism could be defined as letting each nation go its’ own way and if trouble came, we insisted on talking about a solution. In unilateralism, we’ll tell them what the solution is giving the appearance that we might actually step into the imperial throne. Unfortunately as the next hot topic on the networks distracts the electorate, like the Chandra Levy controversy, or Bill Clintons blow job, and the rest of the world is dismayed, distraught, and disappointed that the imperial nabob with the nuclear football trades world peace and prosperity for a crusade against gay marriage.
FDR could not know, however, that the linchpin of world empire is an imperial army. Any decent empire in days past in our situation would have already formed the Iraqi Republican Guard with US officers and NCOs like the Brits did in India. An ambitious officer seeking medals, combat experience, and a heavy warrior reputation in Victoria’s British Empire would have gotten himself a commission in Her Imperial Majesty’s Iraqi Army, and taken command of the best the Iraqis had.
The Brits usually hired the best their former enemies had in the way of troops, trained them with the best NCOs in history and a century later these units would be more British than the British. Alas, the Pentagon, and it’s predecessor, the War Department, would never stand for an American officer having his career managed by the officer himself. It would unbalance the rotation of the fair haired version of the day that gives the personnel weenie the illusion of potence.
While it may seem far fetched that the fortunes of the nation and global peace and prosperity would be sacrificed over such trivia as centralized career management, it should be remembered that the military attracts, retains, and promotes the Anal Retentive, whose central obsession is micromanagement. And that warriors, like doctors, lawyers, candle stick makers, and plumbers seek the respect of their peers, and a steadily increasing pay check.
And that accounts for the failure of the Project for the New American Empire. The Pentagons’ narrow career centric order of battle focused on creating career enhancing Brigade Combat Teams without a cohesive support structure or coherent strategy to be rotated in and out of the combat zone leaving no consistent or stable effect on the battlefield in order to stabilize the opportunity for command in combat for selected field grade officers. This also aimed at reducing the trauma on the military family as permanent changes of station means changing schools for the kids and getting new drapes.
There is, however, hope for the future. US Special Operations Command, and the Special Forces in particular are specifically trained to operate in diverse situations and to form and lead foreign forces. And inasmuch as the likely hood of an invasion of the US mainland taking place in any time soon, Special Operations should be formed as a separate service and the mission, functions and equipment of the Army and Air Force, less strategic forces, be transferred to the Reserves and Guard.
The Congress should also allow US officers and NCOs to serve in Blue Hat capacities as in the manner of the British such as “Chinese” Gordon who commanded a Chinese
Army, before losing his head leading a Sudanese one. UN peace keeping operations are a goat rope with differing national agendas and rules of engagement. Given the opportunity for a US officer to gain promotion and retirement points, these problems would achieve short shrift.
Saturday, December 2, 2006
The Five Sided Blunder
What is the brass in the Pentagon thinking about how to exit Iraq? What is the military going to do? Actually it matters little as the Pentagon isn’t run by the brass, they only think they do and any resemblance to military the Pentagon is not. It is dominated by civilians and is run in accordance with the Dilbert Principle … as is the rest of government and corporate America. The least qualified is propelled to the top spot with special attention in suppressing the more talented.
The Pentagon has five sides inside its five sided edifice. And the first of these are the Iron Butterflies, the clerical staff of civil servants most of whom are typically short, round, and female largely of Black or Hispanic origin and before not only Angels but Demons fear to tread. Any field soldier who dare brusquely before them risks career perdition. Not to be fooled with, but are amenable to gifts as tribute and laudatory salutations as in the days of the Greek Gods.
The heart and soul as well as nervous system are the Super Grades, GS 14 and up, who form the permanent cadre pretending to be deputy assistants whose long tenure and file cabinets hold every conceivable reorganization devised by man. Many of them have military service and have not updated their military experience which in outdate form continues to surface and resurface with new names impervious to meaningful modification. The Army’s light and fast Modular Brigades have resurfaced as the resurrection of the Fifties “Battle Groups” originally designed for the “atomic” battlefield.
The Brass, the military officers rotated in and out of the Pentagon are primarily there to get a ticket punched, and have their homes in Northern Virginia refurbished. Many a sound field soldier has met his or her Waterloo, rather Cervantean Windmills, when a brave attempt is made to use the Military Decision Process in the face of “staff coordination” a westernized version of Nemawashi, the Japanese method of consensus building. In fact concurrence or non concurrence by a Pentagon milicrat is called a chop, after the personalized stick used in the Far East in lieu of a signature. Unlike Nemawashi, where all must agree after all is said and said again, the Pentagon version is sabotaged by truly non concurring despite concurrence.
Only the Three Star Brassnik has enough stroke to over ride the Super Grades but they too ride off into the Fairway in time.
Outside the Pentagon’s walls are the Civilian Contractors, including the Beltway Bandits and the Merchants of Destruction ….the Defense Indusry/
Lurking in the forests along the Beltway are the Bandits who serving one master or another to exploit fissures between Nemawashi and the Military Decision Making Process, by doing the staff work that internal politics denies to Pentagonian sufficient energy to do. Been there done that.
A truly significant element equal in theoretical relevance is are the Merchants of Destruction, the Defense Industry, the industrial half of the Military-Industrial Clique. Far from sinister, they are the font of ingenuity and source of many of America’s mightiest weapons. The military manufacturing and repair capabilities are experts at tweaking their best, but it takes the Defense Industry to come up with the original. Many of our best systems have been the result of visionary work done contrary to Pentagon (War/Navy Departments) desires like the P51, P47, P38 while many of the Pentagon’s creations have been less than expected.
To be sure, there is a dark and lighter side to each of the five sides, with corrupt manufacturers, and bloody fools, as well as visionary civilians (theoretically at least).
The last of the five sides of the Pentagon are the Political Appointees, like Strange Robert and Field Marshal von Rumsfeld whose maladministration of the Pentagon calls for an immediate reevaluation of the suitability of such over aged adolescents as captains of the national fate. The role of the Political Appointee is to over-ride the internal resistance that any organization has to outside interference such as the will of the Elected Leader. Hopefully the under-qualified spend their time on cosmetic changes that serve to make brownie points with their Party, or as minor political interference on behalf of some contributor or friend of the inner circle.
The creation of a bloated Defense Department as a buffer between the Congress and the Services cannot be considered and unqualified success. In the Old Days, the Congress was involved in deciding such issues as battle ships versus carriers versus subs versus aircraft and in fact used to determine the military order of battle as a matter of law. The last time this was done was in 1940.
Lest one forget, the Constitution gives the President the power as Commander in Chief of the forces created by the Congress. This includes weapons, staffing, and “regulations” aka doctrine. Congress has been buffered out of this primary responsibility by their creation of DoD. Today the Pentagon asserts that Congress doesn’t have the power to determine what systems it needs. See Article 1, Sections 8 and 10, and the Second Amendment to see who has the power to do what.
America used to lose a lot of battles, but lose no wars before DoD was created. The record of winning wars isn’t as distinctive today since then. And the reasons are inherent in the internal dynamics of the five sided blunder house … the Pentagon.
The Pentagon has five sides inside its five sided edifice. And the first of these are the Iron Butterflies, the clerical staff of civil servants most of whom are typically short, round, and female largely of Black or Hispanic origin and before not only Angels but Demons fear to tread. Any field soldier who dare brusquely before them risks career perdition. Not to be fooled with, but are amenable to gifts as tribute and laudatory salutations as in the days of the Greek Gods.
The heart and soul as well as nervous system are the Super Grades, GS 14 and up, who form the permanent cadre pretending to be deputy assistants whose long tenure and file cabinets hold every conceivable reorganization devised by man. Many of them have military service and have not updated their military experience which in outdate form continues to surface and resurface with new names impervious to meaningful modification. The Army’s light and fast Modular Brigades have resurfaced as the resurrection of the Fifties “Battle Groups” originally designed for the “atomic” battlefield.
The Brass, the military officers rotated in and out of the Pentagon are primarily there to get a ticket punched, and have their homes in Northern Virginia refurbished. Many a sound field soldier has met his or her Waterloo, rather Cervantean Windmills, when a brave attempt is made to use the Military Decision Process in the face of “staff coordination” a westernized version of Nemawashi, the Japanese method of consensus building. In fact concurrence or non concurrence by a Pentagon milicrat is called a chop, after the personalized stick used in the Far East in lieu of a signature. Unlike Nemawashi, where all must agree after all is said and said again, the Pentagon version is sabotaged by truly non concurring despite concurrence.
Only the Three Star Brassnik has enough stroke to over ride the Super Grades but they too ride off into the Fairway in time.
Outside the Pentagon’s walls are the Civilian Contractors, including the Beltway Bandits and the Merchants of Destruction ….the Defense Indusry/
Lurking in the forests along the Beltway are the Bandits who serving one master or another to exploit fissures between Nemawashi and the Military Decision Making Process, by doing the staff work that internal politics denies to Pentagonian sufficient energy to do. Been there done that.
A truly significant element equal in theoretical relevance is are the Merchants of Destruction, the Defense Industry, the industrial half of the Military-Industrial Clique. Far from sinister, they are the font of ingenuity and source of many of America’s mightiest weapons. The military manufacturing and repair capabilities are experts at tweaking their best, but it takes the Defense Industry to come up with the original. Many of our best systems have been the result of visionary work done contrary to Pentagon (War/Navy Departments) desires like the P51, P47, P38 while many of the Pentagon’s creations have been less than expected.
To be sure, there is a dark and lighter side to each of the five sides, with corrupt manufacturers, and bloody fools, as well as visionary civilians (theoretically at least).
The last of the five sides of the Pentagon are the Political Appointees, like Strange Robert and Field Marshal von Rumsfeld whose maladministration of the Pentagon calls for an immediate reevaluation of the suitability of such over aged adolescents as captains of the national fate. The role of the Political Appointee is to over-ride the internal resistance that any organization has to outside interference such as the will of the Elected Leader. Hopefully the under-qualified spend their time on cosmetic changes that serve to make brownie points with their Party, or as minor political interference on behalf of some contributor or friend of the inner circle.
The creation of a bloated Defense Department as a buffer between the Congress and the Services cannot be considered and unqualified success. In the Old Days, the Congress was involved in deciding such issues as battle ships versus carriers versus subs versus aircraft and in fact used to determine the military order of battle as a matter of law. The last time this was done was in 1940.
Lest one forget, the Constitution gives the President the power as Commander in Chief of the forces created by the Congress. This includes weapons, staffing, and “regulations” aka doctrine. Congress has been buffered out of this primary responsibility by their creation of DoD. Today the Pentagon asserts that Congress doesn’t have the power to determine what systems it needs. See Article 1, Sections 8 and 10, and the Second Amendment to see who has the power to do what.
America used to lose a lot of battles, but lose no wars before DoD was created. The record of winning wars isn’t as distinctive today since then. And the reasons are inherent in the internal dynamics of the five sided blunder house … the Pentagon.
FT Article on US Army
Jacob Weisberg’s article in the Financial Times “the International Way forward in Iraq” incorrectly asserts that “US troops are not trained or experienced at peacekeeping”. The truth is that the US does, but they were committed piecemeal as individual enhancements to Regular Army units not designed for peacekeeping, nation building, consolidation operations or, for that matter, no other foreseeable contingency. They were not committed in the battalions, brigades and groups that they have been configured in early WW2. I am referring to the Civil Affairs, formerly Civil Affairs and Military Government, units with the institutional memory of the successful occupations of Austria, Germany, and Japan. They are also staffed with Army Reservists who civilian occupations include local and state government and the skills not possible to replicate in a garrison bound Regular Army. One of the principle jobs of Civil Affairs is to secure public facilities such as power plants, museums, hospitals, police stations, and such. If they had been used in accordance with existing doctrine and training, the looting would not have taken place.
A Civil Affairs plan to rebuild Iraq was presented to Bremer’s staff but was rejected and GOP activists and friends of Dick used this opportunity to try to convert the Muddle East into the Middle West.
In a similar vein, it is widely understood that the expectation of the Pentagon that the Iraqis would welcome the US with flowers instead of IED’s. Any competent Psychological Estimate of the Situation would have readily discounted this wishful thinking. And the PSYOP capability of the Army is in the Army Reserves.
We continually read of our convoys being ambushed on roads and the initial attack into Iraq was stalled for a few days when Fedayeen irregulars attacked the lines of communications. The National Guard had light infantry brigades and Military Police brigades trained specifically to protect the lines of communications and Rear Area Operations Centers and logistics control centers to orchestrate the whole movement of troops and supplies in the rear. These were not called up as such. Initially the Guard Brigades were used to guard US bases in Germany and in other Gulf states.
The underlying cause for this failure to commit the proper forces to meet the mission, enemy, and terrain inherent in the War on Terror is a military fad called Transformation in which such factors as who are going to fight, with whose help, where, and for what reason are deemed irrelevant. All efforts in the Army is to form “modular brigades” configured in identical formats to be rotated to and from foreign battlefields without regard to maintaining a stable presence to stabilize unstable regions. The grip that Transformation has on the Pentagon is a perfect example of Hans Christian Andersen’s “Emperor’s New Clothes”.
Imagine if WW2 had been fought by rotating the 98 combat divisions sent over seas, thirty at a time. Or without the flexibility that allowed US forces to adapt to war in mountains, jungles, deserts, and urban areas against Asians and Europeans.
The US has only had a large standing Regular military force since 1980. The earlier Cold War army was a temporary force with large numbers of draftees and reserve officers. After we withdrew from Vietnam, it seemed likely that the Cold War would continue and a large force would be needed and that could be done with an “All Volunteer” force which the Pentagon interpreted as an All Regular Army. Unsexy, un-warrior skills such as maintenance, logistics, intelligence, PSYOP, and Civil Affairs were sloughed off to the Reserves and out of sight, became out of mind.
In short, the Pentagon views the military as a closed union shop run by the personnel department. The Reserves are deemed non-union suitable for seasonal and part time work at best and scabs at worst. The Pentagon’s full court press to disarm the Guard and reduce the Reserves to replacements is motivated by the revelation that Guard and Reserve troops have more combat experience plus extra life experience that makes them better suited for the eclectic war on Terror.
A Civil Affairs plan to rebuild Iraq was presented to Bremer’s staff but was rejected and GOP activists and friends of Dick used this opportunity to try to convert the Muddle East into the Middle West.
In a similar vein, it is widely understood that the expectation of the Pentagon that the Iraqis would welcome the US with flowers instead of IED’s. Any competent Psychological Estimate of the Situation would have readily discounted this wishful thinking. And the PSYOP capability of the Army is in the Army Reserves.
We continually read of our convoys being ambushed on roads and the initial attack into Iraq was stalled for a few days when Fedayeen irregulars attacked the lines of communications. The National Guard had light infantry brigades and Military Police brigades trained specifically to protect the lines of communications and Rear Area Operations Centers and logistics control centers to orchestrate the whole movement of troops and supplies in the rear. These were not called up as such. Initially the Guard Brigades were used to guard US bases in Germany and in other Gulf states.
The underlying cause for this failure to commit the proper forces to meet the mission, enemy, and terrain inherent in the War on Terror is a military fad called Transformation in which such factors as who are going to fight, with whose help, where, and for what reason are deemed irrelevant. All efforts in the Army is to form “modular brigades” configured in identical formats to be rotated to and from foreign battlefields without regard to maintaining a stable presence to stabilize unstable regions. The grip that Transformation has on the Pentagon is a perfect example of Hans Christian Andersen’s “Emperor’s New Clothes”.
Imagine if WW2 had been fought by rotating the 98 combat divisions sent over seas, thirty at a time. Or without the flexibility that allowed US forces to adapt to war in mountains, jungles, deserts, and urban areas against Asians and Europeans.
The US has only had a large standing Regular military force since 1980. The earlier Cold War army was a temporary force with large numbers of draftees and reserve officers. After we withdrew from Vietnam, it seemed likely that the Cold War would continue and a large force would be needed and that could be done with an “All Volunteer” force which the Pentagon interpreted as an All Regular Army. Unsexy, un-warrior skills such as maintenance, logistics, intelligence, PSYOP, and Civil Affairs were sloughed off to the Reserves and out of sight, became out of mind.
In short, the Pentagon views the military as a closed union shop run by the personnel department. The Reserves are deemed non-union suitable for seasonal and part time work at best and scabs at worst. The Pentagon’s full court press to disarm the Guard and reduce the Reserves to replacements is motivated by the revelation that Guard and Reserve troops have more combat experience plus extra life experience that makes them better suited for the eclectic war on Terror.
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