Good paper, but it would be stronger with more facts and statistical analysis, especially if this is an academic endeavor. Anecdotal evidence is always heavy on the anecdote and light on the evidence. (Sorry for the discourse, but I teach in my spare time.)

As Tom mentioned, these issues continue to rear their ugly little beanheads over and over. There is no definitive solution; we can only try to get "good enough". There are numerous opinions on how to do that, but that's what most of them are, just opinions (defn of opinion -- like certain body parts, everyone has one and I think yours stinks).

I come from the school that says that operational assignments matter. I wrote so in a passionate article in the FAO Journal about 100 years ago. I did manage to balance operational and FAO assignments, and was a better FAO for it. The other school of thought holds that if you spend too much time with troops, your FAO skills atrophy too much. I was taught early on in my career that if you want to be competitive, you worked harder and sometimes longer to keep to the head of the pack. With the internet, that is much easier than "back in the day." I can read all sorts of foreign publications, monitor regional discussion boards, etc. And as important as regional skills are, I will also tell you that the more general FAO skills involving cross-cultural communication, critical thinking, etc. can be applied outside the region. When I arrived in Afgh, I hardly knew "boo" about the country and the situation on the ground, in spite of self-taught crash courses before deployment. Yet my general skills helped me "read" my counterparts, take socially appropriate actions, and drink tea until I almost peed my pants.

You have certainly hit several high points of the challenges out there. I would love to see the numbers involved from the proponent's office. The Army's approach to your issues has varied over the years. There are a coupla good historical pieces out there that track some of the developments and changes over the years.

PM me and I'll work up some more coherent thoughts.