I’m only at page 39 and I am already learning a lot from this book that is written by experts but not so top heavy in academic scrutiny to make it heavy to read through.
From McChrystal’s foreword it is already giving the reader a big hint on what the future soldier & leaderships should be “ relentlessly dedicated, harshly realistic operators” , “ no one ever masters the craft beyond the need for continuous study”
By this point I’m hooked into the read.
I will now bring up some early points made in the book that caught my interest.
Societies fight wars - the political upheaval of the Vietnam war years shows this theory to be true. When we see war we should realise it will effect our homes, our culture, our money, our futures. Our past is made by wars their outcomes have to this day profound and irreversible effects on who we are and what we become. This important relationship is overlooked but is evident in everything right up to the language I write in today.
Ewoks or as I think of them warriors natural to the land make the most economical & hardy allies but on the flip side the longest resource draining enemies. As in Afghanistan playing with such 13th century fundamentalists is playing with an unpredictable fire. The danger of disregarding useful allies is perhaps best looked at from the point of view of how hard would it be to deal with them as enemies.
The Jedi & Senate leads me to think of the problems of political elites, Capitol Hill lobbyists, Soviet nomenklatura, EU undemocratic technocrats. Or what Smedley Butler highlighted in his pamphlet.
The Jedi arrogance and lack of honest appraisals reminds me of the Tsarist Russian war against the Japanese and the dangers of self serving echo chambers when they finally fight against foreign rivals in war. The Jedi, irresponsibility at vital war moments also remind me of the negativity brought by leaderships that use personality cult, celebrity, and political language & idea dictats along with propaganda to gain and maintain power.
Another more modern issue is highlighted- apathy. The warrior class not believing in or trusting the system they defend. This is an area that must always be addressed with the truth.
Other factors that come to the surface are elites vs the masses, pride & entitlement, hubris, too big to fail reckless beliefs. And how they must be challenged with scrutiny, realism, and belief which I believe will be important in future soldier doctrines.
As well as in neo-conservative circles where a shyness towards calamity and costs of the major political goals are a problem. John McCain has highlighted this problem in his recent comments on the Iraq war.
Getting the real truth that leads to realistic and practical strategies will need to develop outside the easy echo chambers and a ‘take on board’ of critical scrutiny of non-easy view points from NGO’s, investigative journalists, foreign commentators, and the societies of enemy military units will need to take place. A real foot on the other shoe counter weight to our cherished big ideas.
Distant warriors
US is a world empire in 150 countries but it has no feared ewoks, no foreign legion, no common wealth to call on. And increasingly relies on a warrior class that has a distance to the US and the foreign country it is in. Also poor health may be a factor in recruiting from US society in the future given the current fit for service figures. My view if you can find a loyal Ghurka corps like the British did, recruit them.
The next point I liked was on the surge which unfortunately leaves out the money & employment of local tribes that were an important factor in allowing otherwise hidden insurgents to be engaged. The surge although successful in many respects lead to fatigue. The Empire with all its clones would as with all empires face fatigue eventually unless it had created its own imperial ewoks to take its place. With droid or drone armies and the improvements in AI we may view such robots as a preferred expendable choice with little to lose in the way of impacting society and internal politics. Although clones are more imaginative droids have the numbers and equal zero war casualties for your side.
Destroying Aldernaan
To me this speaks of the problem with employing WMD’s leaving out the WW2 example. Little can be gained if adversaries have equal counter measures and it can lead to smaller enemies viewing a Death Star as the bench mark needed to be safe.
The employment of the Death Star shows the empire employing low cunning, losing legitimacy, poorly choosing a target and putting its one big egg in a basket.
Major military action can cause blowback. Every action has a reaction this point needs to be made again and again to political hawks. Has the war on terror in Iraq & Libya made the West safer? What has the cost been?
A balanced approach against full tilt aggression needs to always be considered. As ambition can lead to failures like the bay of pigs. Or the considered Kennedy vs Lyndon Johnson aggressive thinking on Vietnam. After 2001 the military were given impractical and impossible political goals in foreign countries. Both military & civilian leaders need to have goals that are legal, scrupulous, practical, & necessary. Otherwise we might become the weak empire with its Death Star.
The increasing price of large limited number weapons platforms against larger number mass platforms needs to be considered from a procurement point of view.
And I’m at page 39...happy reading to you all!
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