Wilf,

I'm glad I read to the bottom before posting, because you'd already posted all the Mattis wisdom (EBO et al) that I was going to cite.

Indeed refreshing to have command led impatience with horse-poo purveyors. But at the same time, while agreeing with the basis of viewing all military problems on their own terms, based on a close contextual analysis, with solutions based on first principles...there has to be some way to explain in understandable terms the nature of the beast and what we're trying to do. Isn't any 'process' (the estimate, for example) a forcing mechanism to a degree? Or does it only become a forcing mechanism when it becomes a prism that only sees things within its own limited terms? Asking to learn, rather than disagree.