Problems with problem solving.

[Tom Odom]

My question is this: does our current problem solving system, the Military Decision Making System (MDMP) limit our view of the conflict too narrowly so that we can miss the forest for the trees? Do the systems we use to solve problems limit us to a one-size fits-all solution?

Lord knows I am not an advocate of the MDMP but it is what it is: a systemic system for making decisions. Nothing good ever comes from an MDMP session that screws up on mission analysis. And most of the errors in MA derive from bad assumptions or self-imposed limitations on thinking.

In the case you just discussed, I saw the same thing here from 2003 into 2005 when it came to MA; we can discuss COIN until the cows come home (Gian G feels the COIN Cult has usurped all doctrinal thought in the Army). But during that time frame too many commanders saw only trees they had to cut down, never realizing they were in a forest. Offensive operations and movement to contact were common statements in missions and concepts for operations. To my view, without a near "COIN-Cult" intervention, we would still be thrashing around in the damned forest.

The problem you pose is real. My take on it is that as an institution we convert process intended to derive various ways to skin a cat into "the Way the Cat Must Be Skinned" (use of passive voice is deliberate since that too indicates a loss of genuine thought) or better yet "the Way Proper Cat Skinning Must Be Conducted" (since skinning is a process and that means it is conducted).

But getting back to Gian G's concerns on COIN, he is correct in fearing COIN thought and analysis must in our institutional drive toward sameness soon evolve towards Analysis and Thinking to be Conducted in COIN. In other words we will take COIN doctrine emphasizing thinking and convert it into another MDMP-like menu.

Sounds like the BLUFOR needed more F22s and F35s; I mean collateral casualties are just people who were too slow to get out of the way ...

Best

Tom

PS

You are right; you should have had the opportunity to win by proving the war had not ended in one battle.