Incompetent war management: why

Good results make heroes out of mediocre men and women---good results that is.
Bad results, especially in the government and the military, can take years to correct the problem, which is people.
We have had at least three Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs during this stupid war, and several second and third tier generals.
There is something wrong when generals can't afford to fight a war in any way they have the assets with which to fight it. Either that or have the right without punishment to indicate that they are waiting for permission to do so.
Huge weights are now held over the war leaders heads as to being fired or retired early, when they KNOW that what they are doing is useless.
There is only two answers: a general resigns if in that position and keeps quiet, or, he says what he thinks clearly and waits for the results.
Neither has been happening!

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Presidents and Generals
Basmati's picture
Submitted by Basmati on Sun, 06/17/2007 - 1:56pm.

I think you may be on to something, $.

Thinking about some general officers of the past, I've noticed that many of them take after the traits of their commander in chief.

Start with Westmoreland under LBJ: two men of the WWII generation, attempting to solve the Vietnam war with WWII tactics.

General Singlaub under Jimmy Carter: both iconolasts.

Generals Schwartzkopf and Powell under George HW Bush: all consensus-builders who did a masterful job in Kuwait.

General Shakazulu (can never spell his name right) under Clinton: good men who were overly concerned with political aspects.

General Tommy Franks under Dubya: both lost interest in the war when major combat operations ended. JCS Chief Pace was more concerned with politics than the troops (writing clemency letters for Scooter, appearing at anti-homo rallies).

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bas: generals
Submitted by dollaradayandfound on Sun, 06/17/2007 - 8:34pm.

We must be careful here bas, since we live under a constitution which says that the civilian leadership has the final say in strategic planning concerning wars. Of course it is impossible for them to predict ever tactic a general may take, but let us hope the generals by the time they are generals know the damn difference in strategy and in tactical warfare.
Many of our WW2 generals stretched things occasionally, but few went too far before being stopped---by Majors or Captains generally.
What we seem to have now is decisions being made from a standpoint of politics. This is the fault of both the civilian commanders and the uniformed commanders.
If you don't want to win and maybe can't win, then politics may enter into a grand strategy to abort the attack.
In no case however must a commanding general deliberately violate a superior civilian order without giving up his command to a different decider.

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