tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post3123587192433152270..comments2024-03-28T12:29:39.157-07:00Comments on Graphic Firing Table: A Game of ThronesFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-85987504373376846662009-01-09T17:10:00.000-07:002009-01-09T17:10:00.000-07:00Jim: Not sure that this even falls under the "bewa...Jim: Not sure that this even falls under the "beware of complex plans" caution. It's more like "don't want something stupid", like deciding you want to follow a reciple for bear that begins "After securing one bear..."<BR/><BR/>My problem with the PWOT is that there's SO much time and energy expended about how to cook the bear, but nobody seems to ask the simple question "Why are we hunting this bear, and is it a good idea in the first place?"FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-84183014618503348202009-01-07T17:58:00.000-07:002009-01-07T17:58:00.000-07:00FDChief,All my training and experience in life lea...FDChief,<BR/>All my training and experience in life leads me to ignore phased operations and to stick to KISS.The PWOT does the opposite ,this is my disconnect with the entire shooting match.<BR/>Nothing can be won so how do you factor that into the planning cycle?<BR/>jimrangeragainstwarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02126542922536584950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-31024542583479366702009-01-05T15:02:00.000-07:002009-01-05T15:02:00.000-07:00Sheerah: Not sure if John "Alien and Sedition Acts...Sheerah: Not sure if John "Alien and Sedition Acts" Adams would have been all that about defenestrating the Bushies. I think he would have been more upset about the visible decline in the quality of American officialdom. When you think of the people who sat in the seat defiled by Dubya's and Dick's asses - people like Monroe, Madison, Adams, Washington, Jefferson - during Adam's time you pretty much have to blush for America. Our "leadership" sure has fallen a looooong way from those days, eh?FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-89620081440203543792009-01-05T12:12:00.000-07:002009-01-05T12:12:00.000-07:00The lesson I think we, as citizens, need to come t...The lesson I think we, as citizens, need to come to grips with is that we need to acknowledge that our government for all it’s faults, greatness, silliness, and overall inability to govern a janitorial crew much less the ship of state has failed us.<BR/>Let me repeat again.<BR/><B>FAIL!</B><BR/><B>FAILURE!</B><BR/><B>EPIC FAILURE!</B><BR/>Obama, for all the sunny sweet talk he’s been blowing up our collective asses, and this with the caveat that I believe he will be a different kind of President than the jack-ass we’ve been burdened with for the pass 8 years, be able to change our governments devolution into a…geez…not sure what to call it…imperial or tyrannical??<BR/>Certainly, I’m sure Obama will parade our <I>“victories”</I> through the media avenues, pronouncing glad tidings of happiness, and peace; but will he repeal the Patriot act?<BR/>Will he give FISA more teeth to prevent wanton wiretapping?<BR/>Will the Constitution mean something, or will it remain that <I>“neato-mosquito document.”</I><BR/>What I want to know is how much our government has become the thing our forefathers have dreaded?<BR/>I finished watching John Adams…very interesting…and I think if he were here today would he be screaming to is <I>“we need to flush these assholes down the Potomac before it’s too late!”</I> And if he did, would anyone listen, or would we just silenty go shopping?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-74020632775649789952009-01-05T10:54:00.000-07:002009-01-05T10:54:00.000-07:00Jim: My low-level S-3 training emphasized that all...Jim: My low-level S-3 training emphasized that all operational planning needed to include, and in many cases focused on, the "enemy's most dangerous course of action". If you planned your concept of operations around your enemy being fool enough to act in your best interests you risked being taken the way the wild man took the farmer's wife: by surprise and from behind.<BR/><BR/>Not a good position to be in, so to speak, as we're finding out in Asia today.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-62693243087070927792009-01-05T08:40:00.000-07:002009-01-05T08:40:00.000-07:00FDC,My cmts go back to your article on CDRS guidan...FDC,<BR/>My cmts go back to your article on CDRS guidance and are addressed to Charles.<BR/><BR/>The operations order and mission statement are always based upon facts and assumptions concerning the upcoming tasking.The problem in the last 50 years is that facts are not objectively examined in the clarity of day and assumptions are treated as fact.<BR/><BR/>Fact;<BR/>-We will be greeted with flowers.<BR/>-Iraqi oil profits will pay for the reconstruction.<BR/>-Democracy will win the day.<BR/>-These are but a sample.<BR/><BR/>We as classically trained soldiers must NEVER succumb to such pie in the sky planning.<BR/><BR/>My early writings discuss this trend in our leaderships thinking-or lack thereof.<BR/>jimrangeragainstwarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02126542922536584950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-69339435154762494692009-01-05T05:59:00.000-07:002009-01-05T05:59:00.000-07:00Al: And I think it's especially hard for us in the...Al: And I think it's especially hard for us in the U.S., where we;ve been brought up on the romantic notion that "everyone is special" and we can all "be all we can be" if we just try hard enough. <BR/><BR/>Look at the way we've gimmicked our tax and fiscal policy as if there was no possibility that we'd ever need government for a rainy day. Now our economy is piss-pouring on us and we can't understand how it happened.<BR/><BR/>Likewise, we roared into Asia with our bright new 9/11 anger only to find that Asia does anger - and revenge, hate, feud and betrayal - far longer, more savagely and deeper than we really enjoy. We went into the tiger cage to fight the tiger without really understanding how the tiger fights.<BR/><BR/>Now we know; you either kill the tiger, throw it enough meat to make it ignore you, or you leave it alone. There is no profit to be had, politically, economically or morally, from wrestling with the tiger.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-57184136913056905022009-01-05T00:09:00.000-07:002009-01-05T00:09:00.000-07:00ChiefAlas, the difficult job of accepting that the...Chief<BR/><BR/>Alas, the difficult job of accepting that there may be an impossible mission! At times, I think that all too many think that for every problem, there is a successful "strategy" waiting in the wings.<BR/><BR/>To refine Charles' comment. to have a strategy, you have to have an <B>achievable</B> objective. Rationality is not necessarily required. To have a successful strategy, the means to that objective must be appropriate and available.<BR/><BR/>Applying the old saw, "For every pop, there is a lid", to all the problems of mankind is futile. Sometimes, we have to realize that it is imperative to sub optimize.<BR/><BR/>AlAviator47https://www.blogger.com/profile/05585964386930142907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-56897004059263657082009-01-04T19:22:00.000-07:002009-01-04T19:22:00.000-07:00Lisa: Ta.Lisa: Ta.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-83440945966448319212009-01-04T16:44:00.000-07:002009-01-04T16:44:00.000-07:00Thank you for this very thoughtful disquisition; I...Thank you for this very thoughtful disquisition; I am sending the link to the father.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08839236994990699117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-83091029050360306472009-01-04T14:27:00.000-07:002009-01-04T14:27:00.000-07:00Charles: Not sure if there is a way to address the...Charles: Not sure if there is a way to address the problems of the secular West versus the Islamic East realistically. Someone who wants to pick a fight with you over religion isn't going to listen to realist arguments or respond to violence with rationality. And, as you point out, until now the U.S. has been chasing the Bush/Cheney fantasy of Civilzing and Christianizing the heathen Ishmaelites.<BR/><BR/>I don't see the incoming Administration making much of a difference. Too much baggage, too many bad decisions alredy made.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-18939118598177157362009-01-04T08:37:00.000-07:002009-01-04T08:37:00.000-07:00Well you can't have a strategy unless you first ha...Well you can't have a strategy unless you first have some set of rational objectives. As it stands now, we don't have any -- all we have are delusions.<BR/><BR/>We can hope that the Obama administration will have fewer of those than their predecessors... it seems a mathematical certainty even -- when you're at zero the only way things can change is for the better. <BR/><BR/>However, they've already made one awful mistake (retaining Gates), and it's already fairly clear that we're still not going to be addressing the actual problems realistically. Less stupidity will be an improvement though.Charles Gittingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14669296162762355112noreply@blogger.com