Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Lack of trust. That is engendered by two things, the relative youth with thus presumed nominally poor judgmental skills thereunto pertaining and / or inadequate training. It is my belief that a significant improvement in training is possible, affordable and can be effective in alleviating concerns about youth and judgement. Another approach -- or, better, a complementary one -- is to improve personnel selection, psychological assessment and management by leaving people in units longer so that trust can be developed by exposure; the current common practice of excessive rotations of personnel (the US is the worst offender but others have the problem to a lesser extent) is detrimental to unit cohesion and the critical -- really critical -- building of trust.
For counterinsurgency warfare you are looking for characteristics in officers which better equip them for the type of 'decentralised' warfare. They specifically require independence of thought and spirit and initiative to operate outside direct control. If officers who display these characteristics are grouped in units which are deployed into such a theatre then the best result will be achieved.

It is little wonder that 'counterinsurgency' has developed a bad name because the stuff produced off a Henry Ford type production line gets rotated through these war theatres in rapid succession whether they suit the requirements of the type of warfare or not.

Interestingly Von Schell detected (back in 1930) the US obsession with training and courses at the expense of experience gained in command over time. I quote Von Schell (circa 1930-31):

Service with troops [for the US officer] is no more than an interlude in this constant change between teaching and being taught.
If this is still remotely true then one can see where the problem lies. As I said of the Brits in Afghanistan they will not/would not let the specific requirements of waging war in Afghanistan get in the way of their bureaucratic and sometimes statutory systems. Little wonder they are about to lose two wars back-to-back.