EBO damaging

[William F. Owen]

http://www.rusi.org/events/past/ref:E473884C738FDC/infoublic/infoID:E4852915CF2F3C/

From Page 47

What about ‘Effects-Based Operations’? I went to Iraq believing EBO was merely useless, an attempt to build a doctrinal theology around the notion that actions have consequences.6 But in its more radical interpretation EBO advocates a strict planning focus on outcomes isolated from actor or method, and this in turn leads to operational planning that rapidly devolves into a ridiculous essay, a listing of aspirations: ‘let us eliminate corruption, isolate the border, prevent sectarian tension.’ Such aspirations, with no consideration of who must do what by when, are worse than useless; they are damaging because they conceal the need to make hard choices. Therefore, I now believe the EBO concept is not merely useless but actually damaging to our ability to plan realistically and conduct operations.

Personally I find little wrong with this analysis.

And according to my number of posts of SWC, the number of this post is 666!