TRADOC Losing Its Edge?

[William F. Owen]

Hacksaw mate, Question

Gen. Martin Dempsey, current commander of TRADOC, gave at a meeting of the Army association in DC in October. His bottom line is fine withme -- yes, got it, adaptability is key for the future of the service -- but the points he makes getting there are just intellectually sloppy."

Who was sloppy?
IMO, not just FM3-24 but almost all the writing on so-called COIN is abysmally weak from the stand point of rigour. Complex-adaptive-culture-human-terrain, does not a coherent doctrine make.
In fact, quite the opposite. Words have meaning, and you have 3,000 years of classical warfare to learn from.
Why the "WOW-COIN" generation took the opposite route will one day, I suspect, make very uncomfortable reading for some.

The idea of devoting/specializing/converting 2-3 divisions to a light MTOE for COIN operations is a little baffling, don't think anyone is seriously considering this for several reasons, the most important may be that some of our best "COIN" commanders thus far have been CAV officers/tankers... converting a unit heavy to light does not make it a COIN force.

True! The idea that you do not use Tanks in irregular Warfare is utterly fallacious, and the idea that "light is right" is utterly without evidence. You need to be able to use any tool for any job. Some are better than others.

- and irregular warfare demands lots of good infantry, same are regular warfare. Not all troops doing dismounted operations, have to be infantry.