Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

I like it when Tom's thinking seeps in, and all over - that's what we need - Thomas PM Barnett for president, or close advisor to the next president, whomever he/she may be -

Hopefully Gates can take the best of both worlds by allowing force transformation to continue while at the same time taking a new tact (with the help of the ISG) on stabilizing Iraq. All of this assuming that his Soviet era thinking and leadership have evolved over time.

That's the optimistic view on Gates that we must sustain until proven otherwise.

Militaries evolve to face perceived threats. Sometimes that evolution will result in extinction because the perceived threat was not the real threat. Knowing the difference will keep us free and safe. It also requires that the most perceptive honest and thoughtful people stay in the military and their civilian leadership. How to do this is the issue? Pretending that homolies and euphemisms are strategy and tactics will definitely lead to failure. When I was a junior officer many of us were openly critical of the group-think on Vietnam and other issues. We were often in the military only because the alternative was being an enlisted draftee. But I did respect the fact that many more senior officers listened to us and debated with us even if when the time came both they and we knew we would obey the worst conceived and misdireted orders. Democracy is a messy form of government. Democratic armies are not all smoothness and precision. Like General Shinseki said "there is a difference between leadership and command." We have enough talent and money to cover several different types of warfare and develop winning doctrine and to successfully implent it. Let the discourse begin and not quell it based on some strange notion that allowance of discourse and a full exchange of views will be a negative thing.
We still set the standard for the world's militaries and as enemies of the world's radical militants. Let's just shoulder that mantle and wear it with ease. Oh and by the way how much of the military academy and ROTC curriculum, and OCS also, is devoted to the distinctions between wars of ideology and religion and those for material or power advantage. Or is the first kind a cloak for the second. Look at capability not intention. 1.8 billion Muslims that may refuse to renounce violence is a lot of capability. Perhaps more than a majority do renounce violence but until that majority does so let the shoe fit. If the real problem is they hate us for what we do and not what we represent then our force structure may really need drastic reform. At least this blog attempts to inform on reality and current events not hide trends or end results from those who need to know.