Friday, April 27, 2007

Another Must Read: A Light Colonel Takes On the Generals

Channeled by Phil Carter, a lieutenant colonel, who must be considering other career options, takes on the generals here. He puts me in mind of T.X. Hammes, whom he does cite (link), and Andrew Bacevich (link), whom he does not (or at any rate, not in this piece).

I think you can put the point in two ways, a general and particular. The general point is that big bureacracies behave the way that big bureaucracies behave. The particular is that when you read the stories of the runup to the war, you are just blown away by the careerist cowardice of the upper-level bureaucratic Caesar-wannabees among the generals who knew perfectly well that the war plan was incoherent at best, but who figured better a chance for (perceived) valor and glory in this war than in no war at all.

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