Quote Originally Posted by Umar Al-Mokhtār View Post
IMHO the people that routinely participate in this forum have a higher than normal curiosity about the world around them and the events which impact their’s and other’s lives. The vast majority of people, however, tend to live within very narrowly focused world views. Politicians know this, in fact they rely upon it.
They do. That’s why it’s important for people like us--with our experience and military values--to actively involve ourselves in the political process. If you’re not willing to do that, then you’re conceding control of American defense policy to the people like you’ve described.

Quote Originally Posted by jenniferro10 View Post
...they published this today: http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil/B...arned-etc.aspx
That's a good piece. Part of the problem with inflexible leadership is that military leaders are never evaluated by their subordinates. So they’re never accountable to the troops they lead. I think this would help:

I've never understood why officers are officially evaluated primarily by their superiors, when it's their subordinates who really know whether or not they're effective. I've always wondered why the Army doesn't implement an evaluation program much like those administered in colleges and universities around the country--teacher evaluations. At the end of each semester, the professor leaves the room, the TA passes out the Scantron questionnaire forms with the extra sheet for comments, and the students fill them out anonymously. Then the forms go to the Dean. Why doesn't the military evaluate PLs, COs, and BCs like this? But instead of every soldier filling out the form, it would be answered by, say, only subordinate NCOs and officers.

I typed up my own forms and did this for one of my platoons at the end of my time, and it was the best, most honest feedback I ever received in the Army. If similar questionnaires on the other PLs had been passed up to my commander and the BC, they would've been able to better compare the effectiveness of their PLs.
To go along with that, Schmedlap also suggested peer reviews. This way, leaders who weren’t responsive to changing conditions would eventually be outed by their subordinates and, hopefully, not promoted into critical positions like the ones we’re talking about.