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| Home Front: WoT |
| Army Promotions, WoT-style |
| 2008-08-05 |
| Finally, the Army is promoting the right officers. Last November, when Gen. David Petraeus was named to chair the promotion board that picks the Army's new one-star generals, the move was seen as, potentially, the first rumble of a seismic shift in the core of the military establishment. The selections were announced in July, and they have more than fulfilled the promise. They mark the beginnings, perhaps, of the cultural change that many Army reformers have been awaiting for years. In 2006 and again in 2007, the Army's promotion board passed over Col. H.R. McMaster, widely regarded as one of the most creative strategists of this "new" (though actually quite ancient) style of warfare. In Iraq, he was commander of the unit that brought order to Tal Afar, using the classic counterinsurgency methods--"clear, hold, and build"--that Petraeus later adopted as policy. When I was reporting a story last summer about growing tensions between the Army's junior and senior officer corps, more than a dozen lieutenants and captains complained bitterly (with no prompting from me) about McMaster's rejection, seeing it as a sign that the top brass had no interest in rewarding excellent performance. The more creative captains took it as a cue to contemplate leaving the Army. Almost all these new generals have had multiple tours of duty leading soldiers in battle. In other words, they have a depth of knowledge about asymmetric warfare that the generals at the start of the Iraq war did not. And many of them were promoted straight from their combat commands. That is, they didn't have to scurry through the usual bureaucratic maze. |
| Posted by:Glenmore |
| #7 Oh, and for all the dissing Rumsfeld gets, this change from the Cold War/mega-weapons/political Armed Forces started with him. (The Army Air Corps dumped Billy Mitchell too.) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-08-05 19:02 |
| #6 I tend to agree with Anonymoose. The problem has been a Cold War legacy of promoting almost exclusively the political schmoozers; you do need them, but when real bullets start flying, you had darn well better have some combat leadership available. Too many good men die needlessly while the system adjusts otherwise. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-08-05 18:51 |
| #5 "The needs of the military change to fit the circumstances." True, 'moose, but I can't think of any circumstances under which the military needs an ass-kisser. Sure, generals have to deal with Congress, but anybody who has so little self-respect that they'll give a tongue-bath to a Congresscritter doesn't deserve to be promoted above dogcatcher. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-08-05 18:49 |
| #4 Different folks, different strokes. The needs of the military change to fit the circumstances. There are times when the last thing you need are brilliant combat commanders, when you desperately need brilliant pencil-pushing logistics nerds who can materialize hundreds of thousands of ton of materiel halfway around the world in hours. Other times, you need commanders who can play defense against a hostile congress, who can talk for hours or days and not say a damn thing while harpies tear at him. Who can quarterback a cocktail party to get billions of dollars in appropriations, strategic alliances with foreign generals, and other ugly trench warfare. And even when you need good combat commanders, there are times you need unconventional experts and times you need conventional experts. Putting an elite commander in charge of draftees wastes everybody's time, as much as putting a by the book commander in charge of Special Forces. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-08-05 17:23 |
| #3 No shit, OS. We have had enough General Clarks for one century. Put some real soldiers in charge for once. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-08-05 17:17 |
| #2 Don't need to check COL McMaster - served with him when he was a cherry CPT CO of a cav troop in the 2ACR. Same stetson, same spurs. Good that they quit putting "check-list commandoes" and other political ass-kissers in, and started putting proven warriors in. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-08-05 17:02 |
| #1 Go read this article and check out the names and MOS of those selected! |
| Posted by: Sherry 2008-08-05 16:43 |