On one hand, he’s basically right - insofar as the fact that most senior officers in the Armed Forces today came up through a system which rewards bureaucrats who play it safe over other qualities - there’d be no General Patton or Sherman in today’s Army.
What’s needed is fighting spirit. But you’re not going to find too much of that among people who, typically, hold several post-graduate degrees. People who end up with those sorts of “credentials” are, typically, uniquely unsuited to fight wars, particularly in the present environment.
You have to get out before you do anything like this. This is hard to believe. Surely he’s asking for court martial.
For discussion, here is the article:
http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198
Btw, the WP says “General Failure”, while the actual title is ‘A failure in generalship’.
That, in and of itself, was a disgrace. Lots more stars should have been lost over that one - a complete and utter failure of command. It's a very good thing that this LTC has the cojones to voice an opinion.
The way that the generals have prosecuted this was is a crime.
By leaving our troops in the cities with the general population, being traffic cops and building construction workers, easy prey for a car bomb or sniper is appalling.
They could have at least told the general population to leave their cars outside of the city. But they want to be so PC. Its so easy for a suicide bomber in a car to swerve into a convoy and take out a number of our troops, eliminate that possibility by removing the cars to outside the cities.
When traveling between cities, have the Iraq army clear the road before our troops go down it. A little more common sense and a lot less PC would go a long way.
He’s got some good points, but he comes off as naive and more than a little self serving.
His career will be shortened I do believe.
The 500 pound gorilla never mentioned in the article is Donald Rumsfeld.
bookmark
Interesting that his prescription for congressional oversight does not include timelines - that's the cheap way our for our CYA politicians. Rather, he is asking congress to seriously take up its oversight and judgmental duties, a task today's very political group might not be prepared to assume:
First, Congress must change the system for selecting general officers. Second, oversight committees must apply increased scrutiny over generating the necessary means and pursuing appropriate ways for applying America's military power. Third, the Senate must hold accountable through its confirmation powers those officers who fail to achieve the aims of policy at an acceptable cost in blood and treasure.
I read the article and smell a RAT.
And an astonishingly low 0.002% hold advanced degrees in Ballet and Interpretative dance. I think we can live with that.
Career killer bump!
Many majors and lieutenant colonels have privately expressed anger...
Some younger officers have stated privately...
“Some and many,” the usual weasel words used by the Marxist press when it’s doing a political hit job and using “some and many” to get their personal views into an editorial disguised as a news story. This story goes into my circular file.
Until the U.S. DoD changes their Rules of Engagement we will never prevail.
We can NOT let terrorists hide behind women and children and execute our soldiers with impunity.
We can NOT let terrorists use mosques as ammo dumps and military headquarters.
Tell the folks at the State Dept. to sit down and shut up ANY TIME they oppose these views!
ping to read later.
Guess who didn’t get picked up for promotion to O-6!