Posted on Oct 23, 2014
Is the Army moving toward a "Cultural" revolution in leadership?
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Posted 10 y ago
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Interesting article, but not surprising. Let me point out what we already knew but ignore because of what we believe are newer and better ideas.
"Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them."
In other words: If we had no dismantled the Iraqi Army, then we could have rebuilt it and used it to maintain order and not permitted the rise of the Taliban and the shaky government.
Sun Tzu said: A general is the safeguard of the nation. When this support is in place, the nation will be strong. When this support is not in place, the nation will not be strong.
There are three ways the ruler can bring difficulty to the army: (1) To order an advance when not realizing the army is in no position to advance, or to order a withdrawal when not realizing the army is in no position to withdraw. This is called entangling the army.
(2) By not knowing the army's matters, and administering the army the same as administering civil matters, the officers and troops will be confused.
(3) By not knowing the army's calculations, and taking command of the army, the officers and troops will be hesitant.
Civilian interference with the military's actions, ROE, ever changing political objectives, limitations lead to many of the results we have now.
So my answer is this; yes, there is a cultural change and we need it. We must do what is right, but do it in a way that brings about peace. Otherwise what is the point?
We do not want perpetual war. That, more than anything, will be our downfall.
After posting this, think I may have a new topic for discussion; How the "Art of War" applies to the current situation.
"Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them."
In other words: If we had no dismantled the Iraqi Army, then we could have rebuilt it and used it to maintain order and not permitted the rise of the Taliban and the shaky government.
Sun Tzu said: A general is the safeguard of the nation. When this support is in place, the nation will be strong. When this support is not in place, the nation will not be strong.
There are three ways the ruler can bring difficulty to the army: (1) To order an advance when not realizing the army is in no position to advance, or to order a withdrawal when not realizing the army is in no position to withdraw. This is called entangling the army.
(2) By not knowing the army's matters, and administering the army the same as administering civil matters, the officers and troops will be confused.
(3) By not knowing the army's calculations, and taking command of the army, the officers and troops will be hesitant.
Civilian interference with the military's actions, ROE, ever changing political objectives, limitations lead to many of the results we have now.
So my answer is this; yes, there is a cultural change and we need it. We must do what is right, but do it in a way that brings about peace. Otherwise what is the point?
We do not want perpetual war. That, more than anything, will be our downfall.
After posting this, think I may have a new topic for discussion; How the "Art of War" applies to the current situation.
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SGM (Join to see)
1LT Mullen, thanks for being the first to respond. Yes, we should have also remembered from the Marshall Plan who followed ST's observations. On the other hand, we presume that everyone wants to be like us, have democracy, and so on, which they do not. Some people want freedom to do their own thing.
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The objective of Mission Command seems to point in that direction, however, it must be embraced that good or great ideas can come from any foxhole.
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SGM (Join to see)
CW5 Baker, sir, how very true. Did you know that three inventions have yet to be greatly improved upon from their original state invented by Native Americans? The T-pee, snow shoes, and snow goggles...snow goggles now have glass lenses and such but the concept of narrow slits still works best due to the "blue" light from snow.
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