The Army Capstone Concept: the Army wants your comments

[Bob's World]

OK, but Armed force serves policy. The Army has to provide what the Policy maker requires - NOT provide what would work if the policy was easier to fulfil by military means. Armies are contractors, not clients.

Take the following quote from a General following his command tour in Afghanistan for example:

"We have nothing to fear from Afghanistan, and the best thing to do is to leave it as much as possible to itself. It may not be very flattering to our amour propres, but I feel sure I am right when I say that the less the Afghans see of us the less they will dislike us. Should Russia in future years attempt to conquer Afghanistan, or invade India through it, we shold have a better chance of attaching the Afghans to our interest if we avoid all interference with them in the meantime.


When General Frederick Roberts published that statement upon his return to Britain from the 1879 campaign it was because British policy toward Afhganistan was a matter of tremendous debate, and I suspect that as the recent commander on the ground there he felt he had some worthy insights for the policy types to take into account.


It is a bit chilling at how easy we could replace "Russia" with "AQ" and this insight would remain quite valid today.