Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair
Obviously the Army needed to devote the majority of its attention to Central Europe, but did they have to neglect virtually every other possible conflict? That's more the question, I think. The large push into maneuver warfare actually originated with the Marine Corps, not the Army, if memory serves. And I would propose that another feature of a great military power is flexibility. Now I also believe that the Army is getting there, and perhaps making strides quicker than many of its critics felt was possible. The Army is also to a degree a victim of its history following World War II. We are still paying the price for some of the leadership by management ideas that came in during that time, and saw perhaps their ultimate expression during Vietnam.
I had the opportunity to observe the Army while working for the Marine Corps from 1997 to the present. Even got invited to be part of a CALL collection team on a MOUT-focused rotation at the JRTC, as well as other opportunities… This was during the time that Maneuver Warfare and Air-Land Battle were being flushed out and incorporated and my particular area - urban operations - were getting a serious look as a harbinger of our future.

Without over-simplifying the crux of the issue - the Army had many, many individuals and organizations that "got it". Unfortunately, these same individuals and organizations were buried within the combat branches which led to a sum-of-the-parts does not equal the whole scenario. The Army is huge and branch turf battles were on par with service battles within the Pentagon. At least that was this outsider’s humble opinion.

Sometimes I think that we as Marines forget that our size, organization and the power / influence of the Commandant make for a relatively more rapid "sea change" when it comes to concepts, doctrine and organizational issues.

The Army is huge, had a lot of Cold War baggage to overcome and had to deal with branches that were hell-bent on not losing their place in the future operational environment.

In the last decade I have met as many Army officers, SNCOs and NCOs that “got it” as I did Marines. The Marine Corps’ future thinkers had the luxury of being a big fish in a small pond whilst our Army counterparts were the proverbial little fish in a big pond.