Putting the “War” Back in War Colleges

[rangerrebew]

Putting the “War” Back in War Colleges

Our nation’s senior-officer educational institutions no longer teach warfighting—and that must change.
Thomas Bruscino Mitchell G. Klingenberg
September 2, 2021 The Social Order
Education

We must reckon with the hard truth that the United States has lost another war. Though errors made by policymakers certainly played a part, our military lost in Afghanistan because it no longer knows how to fight and win wars. This wasn’t because our military professionals lack will or effort but because they have forgotten the real purpose for which militaries exist. Nowhere is this truer than in America’s war colleges—the schools our nation established to teach officers how to fight and win wars. The plain fact is that these schools no longer teach warfighting. This may sound incredible—even unbelievable—but it is true.

In May 2020, the Joint Chiefs of Staff published guidance for the education of future senior military leaders that repeatedly emphasized the need for all senior officers to learn how to fight wars and campaigns as a joint force. The various services are specialized to fight and win battles on land, at sea, and in the air, but campaigns and wars require building, supporting, and commanding formations that fight in all three environments simultaneously, often far from the United States. The Joint Chiefs issued their guidance because our senior-officer education system does not prepare its students for joint warfighting, which is enormously complicated.

At the war colleges, this cry for help has gone missing in a maze of bureaucracy and jargon. Educational standards take the form of vague word salads: “Senior leaders who lead complex organizations and think strategically and skillfully as adaptive and collaborative problem solvers to develop strategies to achieve national security outcomes.” Such “standards” are neither measurable nor focused on winning wars, yet educators congratulate themselves for meeting them, while graduates leave not even knowing what they don’t know.

https://www.city-journal.org/putting-the-war-back-in-war-colleges#.YTEJ-FYVp3o.linkedin
 

[AARguy]

Look, I never went to the War College. But I did help train the NEW Iraqi Army and was in a few firefights. I  know about the new professorial Ivy-League-like environment having a strangle hold on the War College these days.. I find it to be a bunch of gobbledegook. While we sit around speculating on the relative merits of  " diplomatic, economic, scientific, historical, legal, and other academic subjects"... and dissect "analogies, aphorisms, and the latest “revolutionary” developments in warfare... a bunch of illiterates who don't know a memo from a minnow with a fighting spirit and tremendous dedication just kicked our butt in Afghanistan. It's time to lose the academic BS and get back to being WARRIORS. Instead of all the gobbledegook, let's get back to killing things and people, rearranging terrain and making cave dwelling an acceptable standard of living in the homelands of our enemies. Do you think Alexander, who conquered the world, had such seminars? Its as silly as a surgeon turning away from "things scalpel" and concentrating on the "socio-economic implications of an appendectomy".
 
Sorry. I never made General. I never had a security detail outside of the men under my Command, and I never thought that a seminar could replace a well placed artillery round. I was trained to be and was... a Soldier, not a Soldier-Politician-Doctor-Analyst-Psychologist-Uber Driver-Plumber-Cardiologist-Carpenter-Chemist-Driver-all things to all people.
 
We just got our butt handed to us in Afghanistan. Perhaps, if we had spent less time in academic pursuits and more time crushing the bad guys, all our citizens and those who helped us in Afghanistan would be safe. Perhaps Taiwan would feel safe. Perhaps South Korea and Israel would feel safer. Heck, perhaps I would feel safer.
 
As it is... we're screwed blued and tattoo'd... waiting for the axe to fall.
 
And as a West Point grad... but even more so ... as a citizen... I'm angry with all the talk, the lack of action, and nothing but failure as a result. I'm scared for my son and his kids. Heck, I'm scared for my wife and I. And I'm scared for my country.