Tactical Bloggers?

[jcustis]

Why we are both reluctant and lethargic to changing organizational culture and other aspects that could benefit us. We have the biggest problem recognizing things, then acting in manner that quickly changes things in our balance.

I'd humbly submit that it isn't so much lethargy or difficulty in recognizing opportunites for change. The corporate knowledge also holds the burned-in images of those moments when we failed terribly; risk-aversion then comes into play.

I remember something I learned about IO years ago. A Marine unit thought it had developed a pretty good flyer and pushed a lot of products out. The problem was that the message, while directed at the muj, was easily misinterpreted by the innocents as meant for them as well. It portrayed us as some omnipotent entity that would come after "you" at any time of the day. Screwed up thing was that who "you" actually was, did not get defined properly.

We're afraid to fail in these areas. It does require a cultural shift from the top, perhaps all the way up to SecDef. I don't think there are too many battalion commanders (where the rubber really hits the road) who are willing to hang their hat on an unapproved message or technique. the top needs to define the left and right lateral limits, as you say, as allow more latitude. One question that I submit to you is this: Does the top know what the message is? When I use the term message, I mean the overall framework or theme of IO for a certain. You remember when the push was elections, or joining the IA, etc. What's the current theme? I don't think the top knows what the theme is, and thus we have stasis, outside of the run-of-the-mill products that say "hey, look at what we are doing for you."

The issue of the surge or escalation is going to draw significant mental energy along with it, and other warfighting functions suffer.

[slapout9]

Remember that saying in school sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me. It ain't true! But Americans outside of some professions (Law,Marketing) are not taught this, we think if there is no shooting or bombing there is no war. In contrast most other society's understand this very well, and they are quite a match for us in this realm.

Images,audio,messages can be greater than the sword (updated version of the quote,don't remember who said it). This is why in many societies outside the US lying is perfectly moral if you are using it to protect you or your families interest, the concept of objective truth for all doesn't play that well. And Americans are naive alot of times in dealing with this because we think everybody wants to get along and play well in the sandbox together. It often doesn't work that way and the US needs to learn how to play the game better and understand war takes place across many mediums.