RC/CA

May 28th, 2009 @ 10:59 pm

COIN Food for Thought

“This ‘permeation’ that you perceive is not at all complete (to the detriment of our mission in Astan) and shows that not everyone in the military has the ability to conceptualize these issues as well as you. They have to be told almost exactly what to do and really, this is how the Army has conditioned a lot of leaders to respond to new, vaguely-defined situations. So we need visionaries and quick studies in the top echelons rather than institutionalized robots who will be able to quickly adapt to new, different challenges.”

Fascinating discussion (in my wonky opinion) in the comments. COL Gentile (presented earlier) clearly has the big picture, but my experience says the vast majority of the soldiers here see trees, not the forest. With our shallow pre-deployment training and short dwell times, even the company- and field-grades rarely get it. (Maybe my experience is too localized.)

RC/CA

May 28th, 2009 @ 10:59 pm

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