I'm sorry, were you absent for Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq? Our General Officers have not believed in bad news for going on six decades.
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Shinseki told Rumsfeld what it would take to occupy Iraq, the invasion’s success wasn’t necessarily in doubt. Shinseki was fired We did did the invasion on the cheap, it went as predicted. Iraq was a mistake DImE Not diMe
aug 23, 2025, 1:10 pm • 3 0 • view
So was Afghanistan. What, we thought we were better than the Soviets and the British Empire? Tactical hubris. Imagine if we had diplomacied our way through? My goodness, that world...
aug 23, 2025, 1:47 pm • 1 0 • view
Hard agree although maybe more strategic hubris. I served for a few years, spent my youth as a dependent of a diplomat. There is value in having a potent defense but when more money is spent on defense than diplomacy, domestic social programs, foreign aid, and building alliances…then we lose.
aug 23, 2025, 3:12 pm • 1 0 • view
There were plenty of officers who believed the transformation hype. More still who preferred keeping as many troops out of it as possible. Shinseki was the lone maverick hung out to dry.
aug 23, 2025, 1:50 pm • 2 0 • view
Fighting a war is relatively easy - if you have the right capability, but we rarely ever think of the day after and what next. We are very good at breaking things but not so good at the long game. If we spent more time on the long game, we’d break fewer things.
aug 23, 2025, 3:14 pm • 0 0 • view
And no, war is never “easy”. It is incredibly destructive and painful and comes at a huge cost
aug 23, 2025, 3:15 pm • 0 0 • view
LogPower answers those issues.
aug 23, 2025, 3:41 pm • 1 0 • view
c.f. David Hackworth
aug 23, 2025, 11:36 am • 0 0 • view
The US military is made out to be a lot more apolitical ideologically and practically than it has ever been in all those posts. They want to criticize Trump but its really not the reality of how the US military has engaged all this time
aug 23, 2025, 11:27 am • 0 0 • view
This nostalgia for a military that wasn't is doing my head in.
aug 23, 2025, 11:12 am • 8 0 • view
Shall I recall to your mind the retired GO talking head posse the Pentagon put together during GWOT to shape the narrative as seeming "professional" voices? share.google/72yDB8ecpicT...
aug 23, 2025, 11:24 am • 5 2 • view