Secretary Gates at National Defense University

[Tom Odom]

Great speech and to my mind the following is the most important part:

Limits and Modesty

First, limits about what the United States - still the strongest and greatest nation on earth - can do. The power of our military's global reach has been an indispensable contributor to world peace - and must remain so. But not every outrage, every act of aggression, every crisis can or should elicit an American military response, and we should acknowledge such.

Be modest about what military force can accomplish, and what technology can accomplish. The advances in precision, sensor, information and satellite technology have led to extraordinary gains in what the U.S. military can do. The Taliban dispatched within three months, Saddam's regime toppled in three weeks. Where a button is pushed in Nevada and seconds later a pickup truck explodes in Mosul. Where a bomb destroys the targeted house on the right, leaving intact the one on the left.

But also never neglect the psychological, cultural, political, and human dimensions of warfare, which is inevitably tragic, inefficient, and uncertain. Be skeptical of systems analysis, computer models, game theories, or doctrines that suggest otherwise. Look askance at idealized, triumphalist, or ethnocentric notions of future conflict that aspire to upend the immutable principles of war: where the enemy is killed, but our troops and innocent civilians are spared. Where adversaries can be cowed, shocked, or awed into submission, instead of being tracked down, hilltop by hilltop, house by house, block by bloody block

The problem I see is that he was addressing the wrong audience--those students know the truth of what he had to say.

Tom

[Cavguy]

This one is for COL Gentile:

"COIN and Stability Operations ... the recent past vividly demonstrated the consequences of failing adequately to address the dangers posed by insurgencies or failing states. Terrorist networks can find sanctuary within the borders of a weak nation and strength within the chaos of social breakdown. A nuclear-armed state could collapse into chaos, and criminality. Let's be honest with ourselves. The most likely catastrophic threats to our homeland - for example, an American city poisoned or reduced to rubble by a terrorist attack - are more likely to emanate from failing states than from aggressor states. The kinds of capabilities needed to deal with these scenarios cannot be considered exotic distractions or temporary diversions. We do not have the luxury of opting out because they do not conform to preferred notions of the American way of war."

[Entropy]

Fanstastic Speech. It was hard to choose, but I think this is my personal favorite passage:

Thirty-six years ago, my old CIA colleague Bob Komer, who led the pacification campaign in Vietnam, published his classic study of organizational behavior called Bureaucracy Does Its Thing. Looking at the performance of the U.S. national security apparatus during that conflict – military and civilian – he identified a number of tendencies that prevented institutions from adapting long after problems had been identified and solutions were proposed:
• The reluctance to change preferred ways of functioning, and when faced with lack of results, to do more of the same;
• Trying to run a war with peacetime management structure and practices;
• A belief that the current set of problems were either an aberration or would soon be over; and
• Where because a certain problem – in that case, counterinsurgency – did not fit the inherited structure and preferences of organizations – it simultaneously became everybody’s business and no one’s business.
I cite that study not to re-litigate that war, or suggest that the institutional military hasn’t made enormous strides in recent years. It is, however, a cautionary reminder that these tendencies are always present in any large, hierarchical organization, and we must consistently strive to overcome them.

The more things change, the more they stay the same I guess.

[Norfolk]

Bob Gates is such a class act. It's really too bad (really too bad) we can't count on him being around for another presidential term or two.

[Ron Humphrey]

Bob Gates is such a class act. It's really too bad (really too bad) we can't count on him being around for another presidential term or two.

I guess you can't really blame him for not necessarily wanting to continue all things considered

Either way I think it can never be said he and his family haven't given this country way above and beyond the call of duty.

Wonder if he might consider D#%5I%$ aaaww nevermind