Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
I can't see anything new here. These are what UK officers would call "SOBO" - Statements Of the Bl**dy Obvious.



So how would an operation to secure a refugee camp be "Intel Driven?" The orders paragraph "situation hostile/enemy forces" tells me the threat, so I plan on that basis. I am being given the mission as a result of an intelligence estimate that resources need to be allocated to protecting these folks.
While it may be SOBO, it is as often missing as present in the mission planning cycle, IMHO. The second paragraph is so laden wuth assumptions as to be scary. For starters, it presumes that the "situation" paragraph and intel estimate are read and understood by the operators. It also presumes that these two items have meaningful content instead of just wishful thinking and that that content instead of, again, wishful thinking motivates the mission assignment by higher HQ.

Your assertions remind me of the scenes from "The Magnificant Seven" when the villagers are asked by Harry Luck (played by Brad Dexter) about where they hide their gold and when he rifds back into town to his death, simply becuae he cannot believe that tthere is no gold in town,.