Quote Originally Posted by Spud View Post
I can really see the frustration that led us down this path ... "just tell us what you want done and let us go and do it" ... that's all EBO was really about.
I beg to differ. EBO is "just tell us what you want the enemy to think and what you want the end state to look like as result, plus we want to risk very little, and use very little."

Theorists, boffins and academics (ducking into my Stage 3 Fighting Pit here) have to accept a lot of responsibility for this ...
Agreed, but the real problem was/is the soldiers who accepted the words and teachings of the theorists, boffins and academics, without holding them to rigour. Radical military thought is the slimming pill, hair restorative viagra, that few Officers can resist.

I submit, (from the same Stage 3 Fighting pit and digging to Stage 4) that the adherence to, and acceptance of certain modern schools of military thought is almost entirely emotional.

Would we even have heard of John Boyd if he had been a 35-year-old kaftan-wearing civilian woman academic called Joanna Boyd presenting the same ideas to the same audiences?