Organization & Distance

[Timothy OConnor]

You are trying to impose math and metrics upon something which is, in its most final analysis, about people. Real, non-integer people.

I've done it myself - it's an easy trap to fall into. It's incredibly seductive to just go "Well, I'll use new whizbang 728 with 23 guys to a squad and..." But it is wrong.

Don't think about the numbers. Throw the technical details out the window.

My question about the operating environment is not quantitative.

In fact, the questions raised in the other threads are quantitative by neccessity: How many people should be in a squad? Platoon? How many mortars should be at platoon and company level? At some point decisions related to these issues must be made.

If the answer is "I am sending them to Europe to potentially defend against Soviet actions that may be part of a general war that may involve the use of nuclear weapons", you are going to have different parameters than if you're sending them to Afghanistan to fight an insurgency, support a government, and basically make things peaceful and prosperous. If you are sending them to Korea to defend against the KPA as they come across the DMZ, you have yet another set of parameters.

Precisely. And thus the disconnects and cross-talk evident in the related threads (raiding force vs set-piece battle?).

I think it's time to go back to discussing how many teeth are in a horse's mouth.