Leading With Two Minds

[bruno]

Very interesting article in the NYT last week about the transformation of the Army in how it approached the war in Iraq. Very few people really appreciate that the Army and Marine Corps are intellectually challenging and thoughtful organizations that value analytical approaches to problem solving. IT is not composed primarily of knuckledraggers who believe that more force is the answer to every problem or even that there is a one size fits all approach to every issue. Gen Petraeous, BG HR MacMaster & Gen Mattis (USMC) are just some examples.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/opinion/07brooks.html?hp

"...The process was led by these dual-consciousness people — those who could be practitioners one month and then academic observers of themselves the next. They were neither blinkered by Army mind-set, like some of the back-slapping old guard, nor so removed from it that their ideas were never tested by reality, like pure academic theoreticians.

It’s a wonder that more institutions aren’t set up to encourage this sort of alternating life. Business schools do it, but most institutions are hindered by guild customs, by tenure rules and by the tyranny of people who can only think in one way"

 

[raimius]

Also interesting to note that BG McMaster was almost Col (ret) McMaster. The military can adapt, but it still takes large pushes.

In some ways, the length of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars helped us develop effective COIN strategy. We had time to learn, try different ideas, and watch the reaction. (This, of course, also came at a very high price in lives and fortune.)