Originally Posted by
Maximus
The 5-10 writers DID NOT have a few research assistants, in fact they had none. We're talking about a Marine Corps at war, not a law firm, not a university, not a... 90% of the Small Unit Leader's Guide to COIN was written by active duty Marines on their "free time", when not instructing, advising, working on other taskers, etc. The Marine Corps does not have a pool of writers--active duty, research assistants, GS-X or otherwise--standing by to write new doctrinal publications. I confront this reality almost daily. With respect to this is why we have "interim" publications, a thorough vetting process, and then we can all slap the table on the "perfect" manual. Again, not in this Corps, not at this time. Most of the initial writers have since moved on from their billets. Some are commanding units that are either in Iraq or about to leave for Iraq.
Here's the reality: The review process is not as thorough as we'd all like because your average Marine has higher priorities given the OpTempo today than reviewing/editing/re-writing a manual. We preach the 70-80% solution when it comes to decision-making and this has to suffice for manuals at this time as well, both the Small Unit Leader's Guide to COIN, FM 3-24, new MG Publications, Motorized Ops or any other subject. We can talk until we're blue in the face about the importance of documentation, accuracy, and everything else, but in the end, we've got what we've got when it comes to FM 3-24 and the Small Unit Leader's Guide to COIN and these documents are 1000 times better than anything we had beforehand. Yes, we must strive to revise, update, keep current all of our publications. But please keep in mind many of the warriors that played a key role in creating the documents are decisively engaged elsewhere. For example, LtCol Nagl, in charge of ensuring training teams--the military's main effort--are ready to go; Gen Petraeus is now in Baghdad; Gen Mattis leaving I MEF to be the CG at Joint Forces Command, etc.
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