"Pentagon Adviser: Dump Big War Training, Learn New Languages Instead"

[Fuchs]

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/0...enerals-h.html

I have been a proponent of language skills like 2,000 words each in English + French + Russian + Arabic + Spanish.
I don't see a need to give up HIC training, though.
5x 2,000 words in like eight years (for some countries in the alliance it's only 4x 2,000 or even 3x 2,000 !) is not very much, but enough for basic communication and a good base for rapid improvement.

It's like five new words per day (assuming no learning on holidays and sick days).


I better don't start about the usefulness of assuming that past trends continue for long...

[Steve Blair]

Krepinevich's actual quote from the linked blog entry is:

Therefore, Krepinvech suggests, we should reduce "the military’s continuing relatively high emphasis on conventional operations... in order to support language and cultural training, as well as other 'soft' skills that are particularly useful in irregular warfare."

Anyone who's familiar with his commentary on Vietnam should expect this. I don't think he's calling for a total scrap of HIC training, but rather articulating (possibly badly) the need to keep other forms of training in place or expand them to deal with what we are most likely to face.

Again...too many (on both sides of the debate) seem to want to frame this as an "either/or" when it really has to be a "both."

[Cavguy]

Krepinevich's actual quote from the linked blog entry is:

Anyone who's familiar with his commentary on Vietnam should expect this. I don't think he's calling for a total scrap of HIC training, but rather articulating (possibly badly) the need to keep other forms of training in place or expand them to deal with what we are most likely to face.

Again...too many (on both sides of the debate) seem to want to frame this as an "either/or" when it really has to be a "both."

Agree strongly here. The thread title is very deceptive to what was actually said, and those familiar with his works know that as well.

[Ken White]

Balance. That's what Krepinevich said and the grabber headline misleads. He, is of course, correct in calling for balance and in chiding the Army for paying lip service to it thus far, or, certainly, for not adapting to the here and now as wholeheartedly as they should in all aspects.

Hmm. Did I say that? Wonder what it means? May need more commas...

I will now return to my siesta.

[Gian P Gentile]

Where does Dr K get this absurd notion?

He said:

...the military’s continuing relatively high emphasis on conventional operations...

He should go read the latest Dennis Steele article in Army Magazine that describes a common rotation for a combat brigade through NTC; nothing but and only Coin.

I got the fact that the insitutional army (great folks like RTK at Knox) are reasonably balancing coin, hic etc. But the operational army is not; a fact of life that I accept because we do have to do our utmost to win the wars we are in now with what we have. However comments from K like this do not help the cause.

It shows how detached from reality Krepinevich actually is. Clearly he has not gotten over his flawed interpretation of the American Army in Vietnam and that it could have won the war if we would have had more infantrymen and scouts trained to speak vietnamese and knowing of Vietnamese culture dispersed into thousands of cap-like outposts starting in 1965; you laugh, that is actually one of the bluf premises to his book. That and of course the usual suspect that the US Army until 68 and Abrams was trying to fight Normandy all over again in the central highlands.

I think this is exactly what he is getting at; he wants to turn the American army into a force purely suited for "irregular warfare." If anybody read the recent excellent article by General (ret) Wass de Czege posted on SWJ they should realize the bankruptcy of continuing to envision the future security environment as one defined by "irregular war."

Lets just say a couple of combat brigades got the call to launch east into Iran. One senior officer and advocate of the army's move to coin told me that he thought that the Iranian army would (and here is the power of the coin matrix in our thinking) realize our conventional prowess and instead of fighting us head-on would melt away and into the population, become insurgents like the Iraqis did, and then we would do Surge version 3 in Iran. Me, I dont see it that way. I would envision the Iranians doing actually the opposite and would fight us in a decentralized fashion but still with conventional capabilities organized along the lines that Hiz fought the IDF in summer 2006.

Plus how in the heck in practice for a combat battalion commander prepping for deployment in a year or so do we actually train or teach a foreign language? And really, what does the combat "strategic corporal" do on the ground in Iraq or Astan. He shoots, he stands a post, he secures, he moves, he does what his sergeant tells him to do. Does the stragegic corporal talk to the sheik or imam? I got the need to teach our soldiers about culture so that they can at least understand their surroundings and why they are there. But please, please this culture/language nonsense is going way too far.

Serious defense analysts should stop trying to prove academic points and consider the effects of the recommendations that they are making.

gg
gg

[Ken White]

...He should go read the latest Dennis Steele article in Army Magazine that describes a common rotation for a combat brigade through NTC; nothing but and only Coin.

Doesn't that make sense considering the fact that BCT will almost certainly deploy to one theater or another before their Captains make Major?

However comments from K like this do not help the cause.

Actually, I thought it was fairly balanced with only a slight tilt to the COIN God.

...we would have had more infantrymen and scouts trained to speak vietnamese and knowing of Vietnamese culture dispersed into thousands of cap-like outposts starting in 1965

That would've helped. Wouldn't have been a win, it was never going to be that. Could've been but we're not mean enough to do what would've been required. Nor should we be.

...That and of course the usual suspect that the US Army until 68 and Abrams was trying to fight Normandy all over again in the central highlands.

Well, actually, it was Harkins and Westmoreland who tried to fight the run across Germany in 1945, not Normandy -- and Abrams is the guy who at the first briefing after he assumed command when

"...The briefer stated that the mission was to ‘seek out and destroy the enemy’, the mission of MACV [Military Assistance Command Viet Nam] under General Westmoreland forthe past four years. Abrams stopped the briefing and wrote out on an easel ‘The mission is not to seek out and destroy the enemy. The mission is to provide protection for the
people of Viet Nam’.

John Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup With A Knife, Chicago UP, 2002, p 175.

However, that was then, this is now and Krepinevich's Viet Nam experience is about as relevant as mine -- means we can both get a cup of coffee at the Waffle House for a buck. Different time, different Army. we're better trained and have better people now so we can do more...

If anybody read the recent excellent article by General (ret) Wass de Czege posted on SWJ they should realize the bankruptcy of continuing to envision the future security environment as one defined by "irregular war."

I read that. I thought he was pretty well balanced also, slight lean to HIC.

So we have one retired dude who says emphasize COIN a bit more, another who says emphasize HIC a bit more. Rank immaterial, it sounds like a wash to this retired Dude. What all us retired folks think is immaterial -- what you guys wearing funny suits do is what's important. I will, however, suggest that all three of us retired Dudes effectively suggest you not go off into the deep water at either end of the pool...

...the Iranian army would (and here is the power of the coin matrix in our thinking) realize our conventional prowess and instead of fighting us head-on would melt away and into the population, become insurgents like the Iraqis did, and then we would do Surge version 3 in Iran. Me, I dont see it that way. I would envision the Iranians doing actually the opposite and would fight us in a decentralized fashion but still with conventional capabilities organized along the lines that Hiz fought the IDF in summer 2006.

Having served there as an Advisor to that Army for a couple of years a while ago, I think he's slightly more correct than are you. They would try to do what you say but only a few units will be able to pull it off then they'd go to the hills and cities -- they would not be a walkover.

...And really, what does the combat "strategic corporal" do on the ground in Iraq or Astan. He shoots, he stands a post, he secures, he moves, he does what his sergeant tells him to do. Does the stragegic corporal talk to the sheik or imam?

All that depends on how much one trusts and uses to their capability ones troops. I'm sure that what you say is correct for many, perhaps even most units but I know it does not apply to all -- and I know that to use ones troops like that is to waste a lot of talent.

Serious defense analysts should stop trying to prove academic points and consider the effects of the recommendations that they are making.

I can agree with that...

[William F. Owen]

Me, I dont see it that way. I would envision the Iranians doing actually the opposite and would fight us in a decentralized fashion but still with conventional capabilities organized along the lines that Hiz fought the IDF in summer 2006.

...but this just shows the weak reasoning of assuming that there is something called COIN and then something call "Warfighting." I have said it before and I'll say it again. Though seemingly accurate, it is not a useful distinction.

In Iran, the guys wearing Civilian clothes and firing ATGMs would not be insurgents. They would be the Government. The same could be said to be true of Hezbollah, and is true of Hamas.

Insurgents use all available tools—political (including diplomatic), informational (including appeals to religious, ethnic, or ideological beliefs), military, and economic—to overthrow the existing authority. This authority may be an established government or an interim governing body. FM 3 -24

[jkm_101_fso]

Plus how in the heck in practice for a combat battalion commander prepping for deployment in a year or so do we actually train or teach a foreign language? And really, what does the combat "strategic corporal" do on the ground in Iraq or Astan. He shoots, he stands a post, he secures, he moves, he does what his sergeant tells him to do. Does the stragegic corporal talk to the sheik or imam? I got the need to teach our soldiers about culture so that they can at least understand their surroundings and why they are there. But please, please this culture/language nonsense is going way too far.

You are exactly right, sir. Folks get to wrapped up in "we stink at COIN" mantra, so we end up overdoing everything, in true Army fashion. Said CPL does exactly what you just explained...he just needs to know enough not to be dangerous; i.e., NOT putting his hands on an Arab female, NOT go into the mosque, how to use a 'terp, etc. That's what he has a squad and Platoon leader for. I was in a BN that was deploying that tried instituting a program w/ an arabic linguist to "teach" us arabic before deployment. Instead of putting the leaders in the class, we asked for volunteers in the ranks of E-5 and below, to include some mechanic and admin types that didn't go out of the wire that often. Wrong answer. The training should have been for leaders. The training was also conducted after duty hours, so the incentive was low to participate. If it truly was a priority, we would have done it during duty hours and made it mandatory for leaders...but how realistic is that when there are so many pre-deployment tasks? It was a half-ass attempt at "looking like" we cared about COIN, but not really.