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It's Not the Fight We Wanted, But It's the Fight We Got
If you’ve never been in the military, you may not appreciate the level of professionalism and training represented in both the officer and enlisted ranks. Julian Barnes has a great piece in US News and World Report on how the Army is shifting it’s training in response to things they’re encountering in Iraq. This is important because we’re more likely to see things that look like Iraq in the future than we are “near-peer” kinds of encounters.
Posted by windley on March 21, 2006 9:30 AM
Comment from Ed at March 21, 2006 11:36 AM
Phil, I wish I could share your optimism. Unfortunately, the Army has a long history of tolerating innovative "thinkers" like Wallace and Petraeus just so long. Then, inevitably, things return to normal. The Law of Equilibrium. During Vietnam we re-trained the mechanized infantry to fight a guerrila war. As soon as we left that country, we forgot everything we learned. Why? Because we lost. We needed to go back to our comfort zone. I predict the same thing will happen when we finally pull out of Iraq.
BTW, TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command) is considered a backwater assignment. Wallace and Petraeus are far from mainstream. The Perfumed Princes who comprise the Army establishment don't take them seriously.
Ed Partridge
Major, US Army (Retired)