Defense Social Media and Updates

Excluding Allies and Academics Fuels Unchecked US Military Dominance

This IMHO is the most important post of the month. Read it, reread it, then take notes. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT RULES OF ENGAGEMENT RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Why was @secwar able to hermetically seal the southern border, eliminate crime in DC, arrest Maduro, and sink the entire Iranian Navy with a fraction of the casualties that “experts” claimed it would cost? Because he did not include allies and academics. Why is this critically important? Because in previous wars they all handcuffed our warfighters with ROEs. Bookcases in the Pentagon and CENTCOM overflowing with them. Going in with the element of surprise and shackling our forces to just one ROE, American rule of law, gave our side an overwhelming advantage. But… We just experienced the biggest war I’ve seen since I joined this app in 2007 and I’m not talking about Iran. It wasn’t a kinetic war. It was a war over academia and European control of ROEs. @CynicalPublius and @DataRepublican got absolutely hammered but held their ground. @RadioFreeTom and the other talking heads had enormous power over how the minds of admirals and generals are formed. They had enormous influence via think tanks and meetings with allies over what’s acceptable in war and what isn’t. And they were able to throttle opinion via displays of outrage on TV and articles in the Atlantic. To use a maritime analogy, those ocean racing speedboats have two captain’s chairs. One is the helm and the other is the throttles. The helmsman can only steer port or starboard, but the throttleman has forward and reverse on both the port and starboard propellers. Guess which job is most important? Pull too far ahead of the enemy and they pull back speed. Fall behind and they push full ahead. Too often they push full ahead just as the boat is descending into the trough of a wave. In our military the commander in chief decides the race time and location. The combatant commander steers the course. The media, allies, and the think tank “experts” are the throttle. And they are absolutely losing their minds because Trump has removed them from the throttles. This not only sucks away their power but their lucrative speaking engagements and book deals. Nobody is going to pay big bucks to hear a washed-up Naval War College professor speak. They will pay the throttleman. So Tom and friends are losing their minds and going on MSNBC and CNN to tell you all about how terrible this war is going. What they are really saying is: this is a disaster because I was not consulted. Put me back on the throttles. Except it isn’t a disaster. Go read those think tank and war college reports. How many deaths did they predict in a war against Iran? Not one predicted this few casualties in week three, or this many military targets destroyed. Tom and friends are telling you this war is a disaster, but by their own metrics it’s a stunning success. Ask yourself why that is.