The Army: A Profession of Arms

[Pete]

The problem is how do we develop, cultivate, standardize, evaluate this expertise. If the military is to provide advice and advocacy to the political leaders, when and how do we learn to do this. Do we learn in any coherent manner or is this largely self taught? If we are to be this profession of arms that is truely the expertise in warfare, how does the profession gain this expertise?

Most of our decisions to go to war are driven by domestic politics. Usually that translates into the ill-defined goal of "doing something" to solve or have the appearance of solving a foreign policy problem. In those situations it is the duty of flag officers when asked to explain what can and cannot reasonably be expected to be accomplished given a certain level of military force. One of the real dangers of using the military to "do something" is the danger of compromise solutions that send in forces but at the same time try to maintain a small footprint or level of engagement. It's like sending in the U.S. Cavalry to seek out the enemy and telling them not to become decisively engaged. When things like that go on for more than three years the American public tends to get fed up with it.