FM 3-0 (Operations) Roll Out

[Cavguy]

Great stuff Rob. I remember reading "Army in Vietnam” in 2004 and thinking the whole time I could scratch "Vietnam" and write "Iraq" in its place.

Talking to the Vietnam greybeards on Leavenworth confirmed this as well - most our "new" observations are old - adaptive junior leaders, working with HN, dealing with corruption, etc. all happened before.

I just finished a briefing with a senior officer of the Australian CGSC - The discussion waxed to Kilcullen (a friend of his) and I mentioned how reading his "28 Articles" was a eye-opening moment for me - where I went "aha!" and nothing was the same. He and the Aussie LNO here smiled and asked me did I know what Aussie company grade officers thought about it. They apparently thought it was a great document, but the collective reaction was something akin to "Duh". It was nothing new for them - that was their experience in the Malaya, Vietnam, Solomons and East Timor for the past fifty years.

That’s why for all the hyperventilating about COIN focus, my main effort is to do what I can to ensure that some measure of this learning is embedded for the future – that we don’t brain dump this again. I lost too many people I know partially because we did brain dump this following Vietnam. The challenge ahead is to codify this (re)learning and get it integrated into our institutions alongside the traditional maneuver competencies, so that in 20 years my son doesn’t re-learn everything again.

To wit, GEN Jack Keane,

“We put an army on the battlefield that I had been a part of for 37 years. The truth of the matter is: It doesn’t have any doctrine, nor was it educated and trained, to deal with an insurgency. …After the Vietnam War, we purged ourselves of everything that dealt with irregular warfare or insurgency, because it had to do with how we lost that war. In hindsight, that was a bad decision….We have responsibility. ”
– GEN Jack Keane, 18 April 2006

I don’t want to allow it to happen again.

[Ken White]

Great stuff Rob. I remember reading "Army in Vietnam” in 2004 and thinking the whole time I could scratch "Vietnam" and write "Iraq" in its place.
. . .
I don’t want to allow it to happen again.

Great, even...