Spin Machine by Major William B. Taylor, Armed Forces Journal. BLUF:
“The coalition is desperate to demonstrate success in any form in order to generate momentum for continued political and economic support for the war. After 10 years of war and little to show for it, the military wants to prove that it can still “win.” Unfortunately, because the military is the junior partner to the civilian leadership in civil-military relations, it has little choice but to approach missions with a can-do attitude and to spin events positively. The alternative of pessimism would be unthinkable.”
Update: Also see Ghost in the Spin Machine by Carl Prine at Line of Departure. BLUF:
... Taylor’s “Spin Machine” wasn’t published in Joint Forces Quarterly or any of the military’s periodicals. Instead, it appeared in Gannett’s Armed Forces Journal and so far seems to have barely elicited a chirp across the blogosphere.
That’s a shame, because Taylor’s often eloquent argument is equal parts Paul Yingling (another AFJ alum ) , Gian Gentile (ibid ) , H.R. McMaster and Gregory Daddis , part of a crucial and continuing tradition of sharp criticism directed at the highest levels of the Army bureaucracy by its junior intellectuals...
Comments
Wasn't trying to rag on you, Dave. I know you've put a lot of time and effort into this change and shakedown woes were to be expected. It'll all work out.
But you know, you're dealing with an old CI guy here. You in particular should appreciate it when I say I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to all of this high-tech stuff.
New site design does look nice, BTW.
Well Publius, me thinks things will get back to normal in reference to commentary. We've been through a bit of living hell for about a week now with the site upgrade, server crashes, moving to a new service provider, dealing with our software developers in India... All of which resulted in SWJ being very unstable and offline more often than on. Hopefully we have that all behind us now. -Dave D.
Dear SWJED:
Based on the absence of comments on meaty topics such as this, it seems your format changes may be discouraging those who would like to comment. Either that, or everyone's gone on vacation at the same or just decided to go elsewhere.
I don't know what the problem is with the new format, but I suspect some people might share my pleasure at seeing the number of junior officers who are speaking up about the current state of affairs in our military. I include the usual suspects such as Gian Gentile in this, even though Gian and some others aren't really all that junior. These officers are at the top of their game and it's good to see them spreading their wings. Unfortunately, it's a good news, bad news situation. One suspects these folks wouldn't be quite so outspoken if they had much confidence in their senior leadership. That's very disheartening and I'm sure officers such as Major Taylor would rather be harnessing their intellect in other directions.
It's understood that much of the frustration in today's military lies beyond the capability of even the most senior officer to fix. However, it's also understood that most folks with more than a day or two in the military know this essential truth. Somehow I believe that's been incorporated into the thought process we're seeing here. Excellent piece by Major Taylor.