We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:07:17 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2012 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification "We are a nation at war," GEN Cartwright said in preface to the meat of his speech, "And it is killing our young soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines...and that must be the center of our budget planning decisions." http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:20:21 -0600
That is why I believe the discussion that the Gen was either initiating or calling for is necessary and necessary now.

We either work it out, discuss and debate the issues, as a nation, or suffer the consequences, whichever way the ball breaks.

If we did have this discussion at a national level, the potential risks could be weighted, the assumed protections could be reviewed, and then the decisions made. As it is, we're going about it ad hoc and random, reactive, and all discussion or debate on the issue is being done by TV talking heads who are either completely clueless or driven by, what is often hostile, ideology. What we're doing now is known as "the way of the victim". We are behaving as sheep just sitting by waiting to see which pen we'll be placed into.
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98647 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98647 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:06:27 -0600
Grimmy I really reckon we don't really know where to draw such lines and that they are actually drawn by the way the dominoes fall given the guidelines of things like our morality, the Constitution and concern for legal action and/or another attack.
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98634 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98634 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:42:19 -0600
At what level does liberty trump dealing effectively with a threat to our existence? That's something that needs to be worked up in full by everyone. There's lots of debate to be had in there. Absolutism on either extreme isn't much good, but I'd have zero clue where to draw the line. We also have to take into account the reality that the threat potential is as much domestic as it is foreign these days.

As to the small nimbles, the USMC has been working up a doctrine that will do some of that. Distributed Operations concept is pushing initiative to an ever lower level of command and with the improvements in field communications, operational units are getting smaller and managing larger battle areas, often in interconnected mutually supporting type actions.

There's also such units as the SEALs, Rangers, Mar-Soc, Green Beanies, Force Recon and elements of our airborne units that have the men/mindset/skill sets needful for such things, and they've (most of them) have been used for such things all during this current war and in unpublished battles prior to this war.

Such teams are good for going after small terrorist command elements, but rather under gunned for the larger bodies of jihadiscum field forces. There you still need the conventional troops and all that goes with them.

I think we need to remember that we don't see or hear about all that is going on. The news only shows us so much, and what they show us tends to be shown either incomplete, inaccurate or spun for ideological reasons.

As to the industrial side of the quicker development, I would like remind everyone on how the thermoberic munitions got developed. A lady scientist with a small team saw the news coverage prior to going into Afghanistan and listened to what was said about the cave complexes our soldiers might have to fight into, so she decided to do something about it. And she did. Quickly.

That sort of thing does still happen. More often than what we are told.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98611 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98611 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:05:56 -0600 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98607 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98607 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:57:33 -0600
Certainly not an easy task.  LOL]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98606 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98606 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:48:35 -0600 ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98603 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98603 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:28:29 -0600 ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98602 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98602 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:05:06 -0600
He didn't talk about industry actually operating within that 30-day cycle, but about it creating something flexible enough keep up with the changes.  Obviously there's nothing truly revolutionary that can be created and distributed in 30 days from industry to front lines.  But if that hardware starts out with a great deal of flexibility, it would seem there's hope that the guys on the ground can adapt it to their needs.  Classic American Ingenuity has always been a hallmark of GI Joe, but of course it was much simpler when everything was low-tech...
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98600 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98600 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:07:10 -0600
Organizational inertia, cumbersome policy and personnel structures, turf battles between agencies, multi-year development and procurement cycles, etc etc, will inhibit our ability to get inside that 30-day OODA loop that GEN Cartwright speaks about.

I'm not sure how we can do it and provide adequate oversight and funding, but we need to come up with an organizational, procurement, and implementation structure that is more fragmented, de-centralized, and flexible like the threats we face.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98598 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98598 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:02:16 -0600 ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98573 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98573 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:19:45 -0600
Capo
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98572 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98572 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:38:09 -0600 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98569 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98569 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:57:38 -0600 ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98565 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98565 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:42:23 -0600 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98564 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/02/west_2010_gen_c.html#comment-98564 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:30:48 -0600