"General Caldwell said the manual would influence Army education and training by stressing the sort of skills that are needed to bring stability to conflict-ridden states with weak governments.

“There will be people who naturally will say, ‘If I can do high-end offense and defense, I can do any lesser kind of operations,’ ” he said. “What we have found through seven years is that is not the case.”
Seems to me that that's an incorrect statement. What I think we've found through seven years are two things that make that statement wrong.

- People will do what they're trained to do and if you deliberately leave something out of the training, it won't get done or at least, won't get done correctly.

- The senior folks may be slow to adapt to an unfamiliar environment but the kids down the chain were not. In fairness, some senior leaders got it and did it right early on but they were a minority.

The US Army and most units in it are quite capable of doing a lot more than too many senior people will give them credit for. I've long had a suspicion that the fear of lacking General Officer personal involvement it will not be done correctly is a contributor to that. Bad attitude; there will never be enough Generals. Captains have to be trusted; the vast majority prove daily that they can be ...