The US Military Failures

A fantastic, must read article in this month's Atlantic details the ineptitude of the our military leadership during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

I've been talking about this for years now - how is it possible the "most powerful" army on the planet can't achieve a decisive victory over remnants of Saddam's pathetic regime and the rag-tag group of Taliban?

I get the Taliban are tough, but they are also unpopular.  I don't understand how we can't beat them.  This would be like the 49ers playing a close game against Oregon in Eugene.  The 49ers should crush them, not be in a close game.

This article will explain why.  Not a single general has been fired --

In World War II, the firing of a general was seen as a sign that the system was working as planned. Yet now, in the rare instances when it does occur, relief tends to be seen, especially inside the Army, as a sign that the system has somehow failed. Only one high-profile relief occurred during the American invasion of Iraq, and the officer removed was not a general but a Marine colonel. Relief has become so unusual that even this firing made front-page news. 

How did this transformation occur? Why has relief become so rare, and our military leadership rank so sclerotic? The nature of the wars the nation has fought since World War II is one reason. Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq were all small, ambiguous, increasingly unpopular wars, and in each, success was harder to define than it was in World War II. Firing generals seemed to send a signal to the public that the war was going poorly. But that is only a partial explanation. 

Changes in our broader society are also to blame. During the 1950s, the military, like much of the nation, became more “corporate”—less tolerant of the maverick and more likely to favor conformist “organization men.” As a large, bureaucratized national-security establishment developed to wage the Cold War, the nation’s generals also began acting less like stewards of a profession, responsible to the public at large, and more like members of a guild, looking out primarily for their own interests.

Indeed.  You hear a lot of people talking about how something is wrong with America.  America is on the wrong track.  This is it!  This is why we are on the wrong track.  We've become a nation of middle managers.  We don't punish poor performance and we don't reward good performance enough.  Look at industries where failure is the norm and success is rewarded.  Sports franchises.  Silicon Valley.  Even Hollywood to a degree (although there is a lot of failing upwards, there is also a lot of cut throat competition -- I think there is a mixture of both things).  These industries generally succeed and are healthy.

Failure should not be feared.  We must continually try and fail at all endeavours until we don't anymore. And that is success.  Success is not showing up.  Success is getting up after failing.  Just thinking about all this crap sickens me - the waste of time and energy and money we've put behind these fricking losers.  Reading about how Franks approached the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- I mean -- it's ludicrous.  There must be 100 people out there would could have done a better job.  Think about the effect of this ineptitude on nations and history.  Good lord.

Coming up:  I'm going to be writing something new on the Iraq War and War on Terror, looking back and evaluating how we are still misthinking about these projects.