Quote Originally Posted by Noble Industries View Post
...that perhaps we have been resting when we should have been busy adapting, learning and changing the way we operate.
Davidfbpo
Here in the UK it has taken years for those close to officialdom to openly say "we are in a mess"
George L. Singleton
irregular guerilla fighters whose patterns are changing frequently, simply said. We must do likewise and perpetually keep them off guard until they are KIA.
Western bureaucracies are contraindicated as coping mechanisms for insurgencies not nipped in the early stages by smart and aggressive intelligence, diplomatic and very low key, specially trained military element efforts. Major Western forces will always have a rotation and personnel turbulence problem plus other detrimental factors with which to cope. Those factors almost make the opposition an annoyance -- until it's too late.

The first two comments quoted above are true and the same can be said of the US; we aren't doing this very well. The reasons lie in George's very valid point. Western Armies, lacking an existential threat, will never produce general purpose forces trained, equipped, organized, trusted and risked to properly prosecute a war against a very flexible, highly motivated, aggressive and ruthless enemy who uses our own laws, mores and media as a weapon. Simply, we are unlikely to do what he correctly says is necessary.

All three of our nations and some others are in a constant learning mode due to legal, moral, training and personnel policies. Those policies also impose severe constraints on action. That is unlikely to change and thus we must accept that mediocre performance is the best we're going to get from most of our general purpose forces in such conflicts barring a major change in public and governmental attitudes -- which seems unlikely at this time.