A Balanced Strategy- Secretary Gates

[MikeF]

A Balanced Strategy-Reprogramming the Pentagon for a New Age
- Secretary Gates, Jan/Feb 09 Foreign Affairs

Yet even with a better-funded State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, future military commanders will not be able to rid themselves of the tasks of maintaining security and stability. To truly achieve victory as Clausewitz defined it -- to attain a political objective -- the United States needs a military whose ability to kick down the door is matched by its ability to clean up the mess and even rebuild the house afterward.

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/200901...-pentagon.html

IMO, Secretary Gates listened to the collective debate/voices of Gentile, Nagl, Bacevich, and others and begun setting forth to define a National Security Strategy with the necessary Ways, Ends, Means to provide a pragmatic, realistic approach to cope with future national security threats and define American foreign policy.

Personally, it is very uplifting reading his words. I look foward to hearing others opinions as the debate continues.

v/r

Mike

[Old Eagle]

I'm a fan.

[Rob Thornton]

Well timed strategic comms with the release of the DoD Dir on IW - provides the right context and additional direction I think. I also liked his use of historical and contemporary examples, illustrating that both the dead Prussian and Gray are relative to our thinking and challenges.
Regards, Rob

Note - for those looking to print and read, and who have access to the early bird, there is a more printer friendly version there.

[Tom Odom]

Bill should put this one up on the blog:


We CAN now ALL get along, CAN'T we!?!

I bet we'd still get dissenting opinions

I agree with Rob and Old Man (I mean Eagle).

Tom

[Steve Blair]

Bill should put this one up on the blog:


We CAN now ALL get along, CAN'T we!?!

I bet we'd still get dissenting opinions

I agree with Rob and Old Man (I mean Eagle).

Tom

I'm sure we would. Gates makes very good points; points that others should listen to and take to heart. Sadly, given our collective historical record, I'm not sure how likely this is to occur.

[William F. Owen]

Bob Gates wrote

War is inevitably tragic, inefficient, and uncertain, and it is important to be skeptical of systems analyses, computer models, game theories, or doctrines that suggest otherwise. We should look askance at idealistic, triumphalist, or ethnocentric notions of future conflict that aspire to transcend the immutable principles and ugly realities of war, that imagine it is possible to cow, shock, or awe an enemy into submission, instead of tracking enemies down hilltop by hilltop, house by house, block by bloody block. As General William Tecumseh Sherman said, "Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster."

Nuff said. I can die happy. Common sense at it's best.

... but I'll bet the agenda monkeys will still managed to screw it up...

[Ron Humphrey]

Bob Gates wrote

Nuff said. I can die happy. Common sense at it's best.

... but I'll bet the agenda monkeys will still managed to screw it up...

Tru enuf but that don't mean we won't try reallllllly hard to kep em from screwin it up tooo bad