This is a carryover from the discussion on "The Iron Major Shortage." (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2008/08/armys-iron-major-shortage/#c020176)
The Army is short of officers, and particularly...
Type: Posts; User: M.L.; Keyword(s):
This is a carryover from the discussion on "The Iron Major Shortage." (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2008/08/armys-iron-major-shortage/#c020176)
The Army is short of officers, and particularly...
I think your construct provides an interesting way to look at the problem, however, in the end all of these either
A: Want to overthrow the existing government
-or-
B: Want to change a policy,...
I wasn't separating the two. I was simply stating that any armed group that has economic ends without political ends that operates outside the law is a criminal, not insurgent group.
This does...
Gents-
Perhaps it might be useful to delineate our terminology a bit.
An armed group who seeks purely economical ends is a criminal gang, cartel, mafia, or something similar. They are not...
stratcom......check!
First off, apologies if this has been covered before - I didn't have time but to scan the rest of the thread.
McChrystal (and his boys) deserved to be fired, but not for insubordination.
No,...
COL Frank Zachar was relieved of Command of the 172nd Infantry Brigade after just over seven months in command. The reason given by the Acting V Corps commander, BG Allen Batschelet, was:
It very...
Glad to see this post generated some discussion.
Two issues come to mind:
1. The core issue of this incident (in my opinion) is not whether or not Capt. Honors deserves to lose his job. ...
The big story of the week is the relief from command of Navy Captain Owen Honors for videos which he evidently wrote, produced, directed, and starred in from 2006-2007 while serving as the Executive...
Aha. Now THAT is a fantastic question, which goes right to the heart of the "strategy" in Af/Pak.
As I have often said, strategy is complex, but at its heart is the ends/ways/means equation. ...
Gents,
I'd refer you back to our German friend Fuchs who aptly pointed out that the German word used in on war has a dual meaning of both methods and tools (resources). Furthermore, you'll note...
Well, I couldn't just let this thread die a graceful death. So, as my latest inflammatory comment, I offer yet more evidence that the consideration of resources is central to strategy.
Robert H....
I didn't think of that. NOW were talking SAFETY!
In Defense of the Doberman (and other dogs banned by the Army)
...
Just to be clear, I wasn't advocating the use of doctrine or planning as I articulated it. I was actually trying to point out how these concepts are commonly misused.
Also, there are systems in...
Mike,
I agree that the operational level as we know it emerged in WWI, specifically 1916-18, as the combined arms battlefield.
However, some of what we now lump into operational warfare did...
Ack. I was excited to read this until I saw it was by Steven Melton. You might want to read the first 30 pages or so of his book, The Clausewitz Delusion. IMO, he is pretty mixed up and has some...
I was going to leave this entire entry alone since it is basically a rehash of previous arguments. However, the above statement merits a brief response.
I never claimed that Napoleon "invented"...
Fair criticisms. As you point out, the nature of doctrine is less a problem than the application of it. The villain here may be planning, or the application of doctrine to a given problem. The...
Perhaps this is true. However, it seems that it would be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to build a body of doctrine which would be impossible to misuse. It is hard to think of a...
An excellent observation. The idea of stratified levels of war is probably inappropriate. Instead, we could imagine each of these concepts as spheres existing within the larger sphere of policy.
...
No argument here. The misuse of concepts is rampant (center of gravity comes to mind in the US system). My argument with Mr. Owen is with the existence of operational warfare. The fact that the...
Couldn't agree more. However, you will note a common theme throughout my posts that the operational level existed since Napoleon; it just wasn't labeled as such. The terminology wasn't introduced...
I didn't say that.
You thought wrong. You don't believe in operational warfare, so I don't expect you to understand it.
No.
No.
Fair enough. Great opinion - you are welcome to...
I'm going to leave most of your comments alone since we've been there and done that, and I sure no one wants to rehash deeply entrenched positions (least of all me).
King George hardly seems...