Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
All true but you omit the overarching role of Congress in this sad state of affairs. They don't like to pay for training or too much OM, no impact on the State or District. Big ticket hardware items OTOH bring money nation wide when all the subcontractors get rolled in. The Army is guilty but so are the other service and DoD but the most guilty of all are the Congroids who love that system...
I thought it was axiomatic, "intuitively obvious to the casual observer," that getting Federal funds flowing to the constituents of our elected representatives, especially to those who make big campaign contributions, was the underlying source of enpowerment to the various parts of the Executive Branch (like the various Military Services). BTW, one-year O&M money doesn't keep one in the eyes of constituents as long as necessary if one happens to be serving a 2 or 6 year term. Ever wonder why ship procurement funding is 5-year money while other procurement appropriations are only for 3 years? (Answering this question might have a lot of explanatory power for the question raised on another thread on the proliferation of Navy Department personnel as COCOM and higher leaders.)
If you meant the purging of 'Viet Nam' thinking from the Army was the catharsis, I'd suggest it was really not needed and in fact did not stand us in good stead.
If by Viet Nam thinking you mean TTP for fighting low intensity and counterinsurgency conflicts, I agree with you. The thinking I meant had to do with how the Army viewed itself and how it thought the rest of America viewed it--as second class citizens, not really good for much. ALB was one of several things that ernabled the Army to give itself a new sense of purpose and raise its opinion of itself after it had become hollow during the years of the Ford and Carter presidencies. This in turn was a means that enabled General Sullivan to push his "no more Task Force Smith" campaign to keep the Army from getting hollowed out again during the "peace dividend" downsizing years.

Uh, I'm not sure Cyrus, Darius and ol' Xerxes would agree with you and the Egyptians, Babylonians and most of Greeks in what is now Turkey probably wouldn't. The Punjabis and Afghans might not agree either...
I had in mind the Parthians and, to some extent, the Sassanid Persians. The Achaemenid Persians, like Cyrus II, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes as well as the Seleucid Empire successors to Alexander functioned well before Rome was at the zenith of its power. Same is true for the Egyptians--the last Pharoah was supplanted about the time of Julius Caesar, whose realm was analogous to the America of Teddy Roosevelt, I think.