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Petraeus' New Crew
By John
Petraeus helping pick new Generals:
The Army has summoned the top U.S. commander in Iraq back to Washington to preside over a board that will pick some of the next generation of Army leaders, an unusual decision that officials say represents a vote of confidence in Gen. David H. Petraeus's conduct of the war, as well as the Army counterinsurgency doctrine he helped rewrite.The Army has long been criticized for rewarding conventional military thinking and experience in traditional combat operations, and current and former defense officials have pointed to Petraeus's involvement in the promotion board process this month as a sign of the Army's commitment to encouraging innovation and rewarding skills beyond the battlefield.
Some junior and midlevel officers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been particularly outspoken in their criticisms, saying the Army's current leadership lacks a hands-on understanding of today's conflicts and has not listened to feedback from younger personnel.
"It's unprecedented for the commander of an active theater to be brought back to head something like a brigadier generals board," said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former head of the Army War College.
Not that it's completely related, but when George C. Marshall took over as Army Chief of Staff, one of his first moves was to unload the hodgepodge of Army generals who had spent a career drinking the "old war" kool-aid. Controversial plan at the time, yeah. But it revolutionized the force, effectively destroying the Army good old boys club, a bunch of stubborn old bureaucrats who gave Billy Mitchell the boot while the Nazis were developing a brilliant choreography of infantry, armor, and aircraft known as the blitzkrieg.
The restructuring paid off. Omar Bradley was promoted from straight from Lt Colonel to Brigadier General, skipping over the rank of full colonel. George S. Patton was a colonel in 1939. By 1943 he had three stars. Dwight Eisenhower was rotting away in a staff job up until 1942, two years later he was leading Operation Overlord as Supreme Allied Commander. And so it went.
So do I see a bit of a connection here? A brilliant leader going sapper on Big Army's cumbersome checklist style of officer promotion, so as to better posture the force to fight tomorrow's war?
Yeah, you betcha.
Update: Whoops, a belated Hotel Tango to W.Thomas Smith at The Tank. Lo siento, dude!
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Comments
DaveO, what you write in your comment may be correct. But I think you will find Gen Cody would be well advised to work with, rather than obstruct Gen Petraeus. My analogy would be more like Gen Cody feeling like he is the king cobra rearing up for the kill. The kill would be a rather small animal and no problem. But he has a fatal flaw in his logic. The cobra is in the domain of this little animal. The animal is a mongoose, Cen Petraeus. The mongoose kills and eats cobras. We are in a completely different model of warfare. Cody can be marginalized in the blink of an eye or the nod of the head.
There's another two cents, what does that make it four cents?
Grumpy
I'm curious - is COL McMasters of the 3rd Cav. still in the Army... or has he been picked up for a star yet?
Seems that based on his successes in Iraq, he would be favored for one.
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Interesting that General Petraeus may meet his first major defeat going up against the Army personnel system.
1. General Cody is the big dog on the porch. General Petraeus may select some officers, but if they aren't one of Cody's people, their names will be dropped from the list.
2. The pool of talent at the senior colonel rank is very very very small. That's the long term drawback from having a zero-defects culture. Anyone with experience is weeded out of the Army, or marginalized in Corporate Army desk jobs, at the Major and Lieutenant Colonel level. Anyone with skill, drive, and no-kidding warrior mentality is an accident.
3. If Congress really wanted to mess with the Army, a senator can put an anonymous hold on the Army promotion lists indefinitely. It's happened before, and there are enough senators who do want to lose this war.
My two cents...