Recruiting for SWC members because....

[RTK]

Having just found this site I am interested in RTK's comment above re. profiles. I have no relevant specialist knowledge. I am a moderator on another completely unrelated site (about disease tracking H5N1 etc.) and have found many of the regular non-specialist posters make some of the most interesting - and knowledgeable - posts. While it is interesting to know if they are virologists or epidemiologists etc. I try to take each post on its own merits and not worry too much about the posters academic back ground, there are plenty of well credentialed 'experts' making factually incorrect statements.

While I agree with your final statement, I always like to be sure that the bit of advise I'm taking for the real-time or near-real time application of foreign policy at the tactical level isn't from the shmedlap sitting in the office next to mine. It also helps gain a perspective from a different direction, one perhaps I'd not thought of having a relevent application in a certain realm. I'm also not into getting foreign policy tips from a sophomore in high school.

It's not that I'm just looking for some Soldier or policy maker's perspective. Regardless of background, I (and others) would like to see what exactly the background is for a lot of the same reasons Rob wrote on in the first post. Many have much to add to the discussion from a lot of different angles. We're just trying to figure out which angle people have.

[Steve Blair]

It's not that I'm just looking for some Soldier or policy maker's perspective. Regardless of background, I (and others) would like to see what exactly the background is for a lot of the same reasons Rob wrote on in the first post. Many have much to add to the discussion from a lot of different angles. We're just trying to figure out which angle people have.

I think the angle or perception of a poster is important. In terms of experience...it's all relative. In my job I have to deal with military folks who think that 15+ years of military service qualifies them in some way to provide academic advice to college freshmen, even though they've never seen the inside of a college classroom themselves and have only the vaguest idea of what a college major really is. They don't understand how the university system works, but they think that their experience somehow translates directly to it.

One of the keys to experience, in my view, is knowing what you DON'T know. I've met people both in and out of the military who are seriously expert in their very narrow lanes of knowledge, but then think that that expertness (yeah...not a real word I don't think, but it sounds cool) somehow carries over to every other thing they touch. We're fortunate here in that we have a great number of people who understand what they don't know and are willing to offer up what they do know to help others fill their own gaps.

That said, I also find the high school sophomore foreign policy "expert" annoying, but at the same time it's interesting to see what they know, what they don't know, and what they THINK they know.

[DavidLuckie]

I just signed up here.

I'm an Economist, with degrees in Economics and Military History. I spent 17 years working for the Corps of Engineers and got lured into the private sector last year.

I worked on several projects for the Gulf Regional Division from 2004 through 2006, serving in a "reachback" capacity for GRD. BG Walsh was my Division Commander when he was at South Atlantic Division (and I scored a Challenge Coin from him for my reachback work).

I now work for a Civil Engineering, Surveying, Landscape Architecture and Planning firm with a good history of military and civilian agency work.

I'm looking forward to learning, and I'll probably lurk more than post.

Regards,

Dave