Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
No the Army has not been dilberted...

Any large organization takes a while change, like turning a large ship. Schoomaker has done that so far. If you want to look at kicking and screaming. Go to thread on the AF and COIN doctrine, that will show real aversion to change. The Army has identified some friction points, and they are reducing them, such as the turn around time on doctrine changes. No government as a whole, has a ton of other issues, that make any big company appear the paradigm for dynamicism and efficiency.
But my point is that exactly. Schoomaker is acting like it's a large ship, that he can direct from above. As do nearly all of his upper ranks people. Just look at all the mandatory training that is pushed from the top down, accompanied by innumerable surveys to try to judge the effects.

The technique is stupid. (Make whatever implications vis-a-vis Schoomaker and Co. you'd like based on that statement) And demonstrates that those folks just don't trust anyone underneath them. Which makes the situation worse.

For a brief shining moment, from around 1983 until 1990, there was a time when Auftragstaktik ruled the army. (Or at least the Armored Part). We were encouraged to be flexible and employ basic understanding and trust between superiors/subordinates, or at least that was the theory.

Now, a Corps Headquarters issues FRAGOs to ask a Company level unit to move it's outhouses. And that means that all the "Strategic Corporal" speak is just bull####. If there IS a Transformation, it is to MORE CENTRAL CONTROL, not less.

Sorry, had to vent.