Revisiting DR Kilcullen's piece on New Paradigms and the OSS

[Rob Thornton]

Well I can confirm that even a hat and sunglasses won't help you pick up chicks - good thing for me I met the wife in bad light

On the serious note, inter-agency is so tough, given the baggage and size of rice bowls that come with it. Even if this new service stood up from scratch, there would have to be administrators, bean counters, and advisors who rolled in at the beginning and formed the nucleus from which all else would grow.

I think like many such organizations in the past - it'd have to start with leadership that had a vision, knew the kind of people he/she wanted, and where to get them. I'll bet that skill sets you need to frame an organization can be found out there amongst folks with talent who are currently disgruntled and looking for a place that reflects function over form - what you have to guard against down the road is when organizations take on the mistake upholding core values for group think - a danger to anything novel.

Bias I think is always going to be there to some degree - it reflects our individualism to some degree - but the trick is acknowledging that you have bias on a topic, realizing how it effects your perspective, then mitigating its negative effects.

I was thinking something different from the Peacemaker (if we're talking movies - maybe not the best way to describe people but...)- something less kinetic and lethal for sure, less Clooney - more Jimmy Stewart sort or Hitchcock kinda of Cary Grant in North by Northwest, Indiana Jones, - not very flashy by today's standards, but ideally we're talking about low on the tech, more of the grey matter - something where the cause of the solution goes largely un-noticed in the media because it was not spectacular enough to make the FOX/CNN cable media , something more indirect. We have good organizations to do the DA high speed stuff already. These would be people who feel comfortable and are able to think in what for many might be a set of uncomfortable circumstances - they'd need reasonable powers of observation and analysis and be resourceful.

Best, Rob