I agree with both Bob and Bill: As an animal I believe we prefer routine and predictability to change. Change is scary and makes us apprehensive. Predictability is a large part of why we build social systems like the economy or the government. So we are inclined to prefer what we know instead of embracing what we don't know.
I also believe that the Army, as an institution, is designed to weed out creativity. American's are taught to believe that individuality is what you should strive for. A large part of that has to be indoctrinated out of Soldiers in Basic Training. Further, as with any large bureaucracy, the unintended consequence of its success is a desire to perpetuate itself. This means that change is often seen as a threat.
The juxtaposition of American's idealizing individuality and entrepreneurship and the Army's requirements to indoctrinate its members into a belief in conformity and the necessity of any large, diffuse organization to standardize creates some interesting problems.
I believe that Bob's observation that a standing army does not create the conditions for creative thinking is accurate. It would seem that we need to reduce our size dramatically if we really want to embrace creativity. Given the choice, the Army will take more armor brigades to more creativity any day of the week.
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