Tom Ricks on Generals

[alethialia]

Tom Ricks has an article up at The Atlantic, General Failure. In it, he obliquely references General Mattis relieving Colonel Dowdy of command:

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

Comments

[green_grrl]

That is excellent. I came away from Ricks' Fiasco with a strong sense of the Bush administration's failures of leadership and some of the individual failures of generals mentioned here. But this is a good focus on how the military used to be more proactive in monitoring leadership and changing it up.

(Can you imagine if Captain America had been yanked out of platoon command? Even if he were transferred back to intelligence, where he came from, it would have been an improvement.)

One of the reasons we were able to hold on despite a failing strategy, and then turn the situation around, was that our soldiers continued to be led by highly competent, professional junior officers and noncommissioned officers whom they respected

I know this was an Army quote, but it sounds just like some Marines we know! I hope this article and/or the book get some coverage in the Marine Corps Gazette, which has a reputation for no-sacred-cows discussion of issues.

Thanks for posting!

[alethialia]

One of the reasons we were able to hold on despite a failing strategy, and then turn the situation around, was that our soldiers continued to be led by highly competent, professional junior officers and noncommissioned officers whom they respected

I know this was an Army quote, but it sounds just like some Marines we know!

That's another reason I posted it here! Ricks' contention does sound eerily familiar to many of the complaints of Marines in GK.

And you are very welcome. Glad you found it interesting.

[melkerr]

I've only skimmed this for now, but

Given the record of his command in Iraq, it is startling that one of the preoccupations of Sanchez’s memoir is how the Bush administration failed to elevate him to four-star rank.

*facepalm* Wow what a clusterfuck

[alethialia]

Yeah, wow does Sanchez come out looking terrible.