Adapt Or Die

[marct]

Hey Mark,

You have assumed that I have used 'society' in the sense of a body of humans anchored to a locale. I actually intended it in the wider sense that you have described, so I think we are in violent agreement.

LOLOL - what's that famous comment about the US and Britain? "two countries divided by a common language" or something like that? Maybe we should update that to 4 countries .

I tend to agree with you - from the evidence readily available it would seem that the US Military has done a good job of realisation and adaptation (never easy to do for any organisation, let alone a military) in a relatively short time. OK, it is not perfect, but few things are in life.

Totally agreed. What I find especially intriguing about he speed of shifting (I'm not quite ready to use "adaptation" yet - "diffusion" may be a better term) is that it was showing up as early as the initial invasion of Iraq.

The main problem is that whilst this change and adaptation has been 100% necessary for the continued prosecution of the 'fight', it is not of itself a strategic 'end'.

Bingo. To make it even worse, the rhetoric has been aimed as if the military could "win". We've debated that ad nauseum, but I am struck once again by the nature of the politicians who are more concerned with getting elected than with playing their part in "winning", since it is, ultimately, a political.

The ongoing fascination that commentators and pundits have with the mechanics and metrics of the 'surge' is an indication of this failure to 'get' the distinction between the elements of coherent strategy and their relative places. Not many of them seem to have considered the possibility that the surge could be spectacularly successful, and still achieve nothing practicable regarding the root causes of the current conflict.

I suspect, in my more cynical moments, that it is a case of CYA by the politicians. Many of them refuse to accept that they can be held responsible in a war for victory or defeat. Right now, I wish we had a few more statesmen and a few less politicians....

Marc