Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
"The biggest change is that we're recognizing some of the limitations in technologies that were designed to improve situational understanding and situational awareness," said McMaster. "We understand now how enemy countermeasures can place what we need to know about the enemy and what we need to know about the situation outside the reach of technology."
Seriously? After 20 years of folks telling telling them this they now just get it? I find this statement profoundly depressing.
You know, I took that quote as a face saving way of reversing the worst of the cyborgophile tendencies in FCS. Ever since RoboCop and Terminator, the US public has been enamoured of the idea of cyborg warriors; something the earlier (pre-9/11) FCS played into. As to why they played into it, my gut guess would be twofold. First, the public belief that human casualties would be reduced, and second, the growing split between civilian public "consciousness" and the military.

There is a bureaucratic imperative operating in almost all large organizations that translates to "Must get more resources.... Hmmmm, resources!" {spoken in a Homer Simpson voice for added effect}. The cyborgian vision of FCS certainly played out along these lines. But, as with all bureaucracies, there was a tendency to force individual members of the organization to accept the organizational rhetoric as reality. I think this was pretty clearly shown in the reaction to Van Ripper's actions in Millennium Challenge.

But how do you change the rhetoric (aka organizational construct of "reality") without damaging the organization? The simplest way to do it is very, VERY, slowly (think about the phrase "Holy Mother Church in Her Wisdom has always said that..."). In particular, note the phrase "We understand now how enemy countermeasures" (emphasis added). This implicitly says that "it's not our fault!" without having to admit that the entire idea was stupid in the first place.

Let me pull that last comment out a bit....

I think that the rhetorical vision of FCS was "stupid" for one, simple reason: it excludes human nature. The more control span you give to a commander, the greater the temptation to use it. Furthermore, such an enhanced control span disregards one of the most brilliant pieces of technology in the arsenal of warfare - the human mind. Having such a control span makes a force much less able to react on the fly while, at the same time, increasing the likelihood of producing "commanders" who are only capable of following the Book.

Honestly, I'm rather heartened by the current discussions. I think that they are very well aware of the potential problems and how to solve at least some of them.