Win Wars? Today’s Generals Must Also Politick and Do P.R.
After nine years of fighting in the deserts and mountains of the Middle East, the military has concluded that the traditional, hard-earned combat skills that allowed generations of “muddy boots” commanders to protect American interests around the world simply are not enough to assure victory in today’s wars — or career advancement through the top ranks of the armed forces....
In an acknowledgment that the top jobs have become ever more intellectually challenging, physically exhausting and politically bruising, senior officers confirm that the armed services are looking to exactly this broader set of skills as they fit their future four-stars with the mask of command worn by Washington and Grant, Marshall and Eisenhower....
Which is not to say that past commanders of major theaters of war had it easy.
When Eisenhower was European commander in World War II, he had alliance politics to manage, as well as the enormous egos of his subordinates.
But, said Kori Schake, a Hoover Institution research fellow who has held senior policy positions at the National Security Council and at the Departments of State and Defense, Eisenhower’s mission was far more straightforward....
“His orders were to invade Europe, conquer Germany,” she said. “He was asked to defeat another uniformed, organized national army. In comparison, part of the reason we are struggling with the wars today is that military force cannot so easily achieve the complicated, sophisticated set of second-order effects we are asking it to achieve.”...
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In an acknowledgment that the top jobs have become ever more intellectually challenging, physically exhausting and politically bruising, senior officers confirm that the armed services are looking to exactly this broader set of skills as they fit their future four-stars with the mask of command worn by Washington and Grant, Marshall and Eisenhower....
Which is not to say that past commanders of major theaters of war had it easy.
When Eisenhower was European commander in World War II, he had alliance politics to manage, as well as the enormous egos of his subordinates.
But, said Kori Schake, a Hoover Institution research fellow who has held senior policy positions at the National Security Council and at the Departments of State and Defense, Eisenhower’s mission was far more straightforward....
“His orders were to invade Europe, conquer Germany,” she said. “He was asked to defeat another uniformed, organized national army. In comparison, part of the reason we are struggling with the wars today is that military force cannot so easily achieve the complicated, sophisticated set of second-order effects we are asking it to achieve.”...