Summary: Our defeats since 9/11 in Iraq and Afghanistan again show the need to reforge the US military for a time when 4GW has become the dominant form of war. James Fallows proposes a bold step for Obama to start that process — appoint Donald Vandergriff (Major, US Army, retired; co-author on the FM website) to a key DoD post. Here’s why Obama should do so. See the follow-up posts listed at the end.
“People, ideas and hardware, in that order!”
— the late John R. Boyd (Colonel, USAF), quoted in Chet Richard’s Certain to Win.
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A powerful and insightful article.
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Please read this article by James Fallows at The Atlantic:
Today … a thought-experiment solution. In previous episodes, I’ve quoted present and former officers on the perils of group-think and risk-avoidance as aspirants make their way up the military promotion ranks. Suppose Barack Obama, still-SecDef Chuck Hagel, or his successor-designate Ashton Carter wanted to do something to shift this culture. There could be few clearer signs of an intention to shake things up than appointing Donald Vandergriff as the next Yoda.
… This very good review by Carlos Lozada in the Washington Post explains why the name has been attached to Andrew Marshall, who at age 93 is just now stepping down as director of the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment and all-purpose eminence grise in the military world. Now the Pentagon is advertising for his successor — literally, there’s a job description and application form online. Want to signal a change? My candidate, until someone has a better idea, is Donald Vandergriff, who has in fact applied for the job.
Vandergriff spent 24 years on active duty an enlisted member of the Marine Corps and an Army officer. When he retired ten years ago as a major, a relatively junior rank, he exemplified the tensions between an independent-thinking, irrepressible, let’s-rock-the-boat reformer and the “don’t make waves” normal promotion machine.
… such an appointment would be a sign that {Obama was} serious about changing an organization’s course, plus recognizing and rewarding those who had taken risks for the right reasons.
Color me skeptical that Obama or his appointees “want to shift this culture”. Their first term took Bush Jr’s innovations and embedded them in the fabric of the government bureaucracy at all levels — and into our legal system. Nevertheless the idea is, as usual for Fallows, brilliant. It shows us what real reform looks like. It’s been so long that many of us had forgotten.
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Why is Don’s work so important?
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The people and organization of an army must correspond to the nature of the foes its fights and the tools it uses. A Napoleonic army (the era of first generation war) marched into battle in blocks to fight discrete battles over small areas. No matter how equipped, it could not use the tools of WWII’s maneuver war (third generation war). For example, 3GW (“blitzkrieg’) required intelligent initiative from junior officers and rapid close coordination among units, foreign concepts to a 1GW force.
Now we’ve entered the fourth generation of war against foes, such as those who have defeated us in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq despite the fantastic training, courage, and equipment of our troops. Our military remains locked in its 2GW roots, with partial adaptation to 3GW, and so unable to face even untrained and poorly equipped foes using 4GW methods on their home turf (the home court advantage is massive in war, and especially so in 4GW).
Fred Reed gives a fun and enlightening summary of the problem in “Fred: A True Son of Tzu”. Highly recommended!
Donald Vandergriff (one of the authors on the FM website) has identified a powerful point of leverage to change our massive and dysfunctional military apparatus: its personnel system, the process by which the Army recruits, trains, and promotes its officers. Change this and the effects ripple outward through the entire organization over time as the nature and behavior of its leaders evolve. The Army has begun the long slow evolution of its personnel policies, responding to the ideas of Vandergriff and others.
This success puts Vandergriff on the cutting edge of America’s sword. He, and others like him, are crafting a solution of the third kind (about people) to defeat our foes at 4GW. We can win at 4GW. We must learn to do so, or the 21st century will be a harsh time for America.
Other posts in this series
- Why the Pentagon would rather hire a jihadist like bin Laden than Donald Vandergriff.
- A step to getting an effective military. We might it need soon.
- How officers adapt to life in the Pentagon: they choose the blue pill.
About solutions to 4GW.
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At the start of WWII America was almost totally unprepared for 3GW. By the end we had mastered it. Transformations to meet new needs are a core capability of Americans.
- A solution to 4GW — the introduction
- Why We Lose at 4GW — About the two kinds of insurgencies
- Arrows in the Eagle’s claw — solutions to 4GW
- Arrows in the Eagle’s claw — 4GW analysts
- Visionaries point the way to success in the age of 4GW
- 4GW: A solution of the first kind – Robots!
- 4GW: A solution of the second kind
- 4GW: A solution of the third kind – Vandergriff is one of the few implementing real solutions.
Vandergriff’s work is vital for military reform because people are policy. For more about the importance of this see Martin van Creveld’s Training of Officers: From Military Professionalism to Irrelevance.
About Don Vandergriff.
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Donald Vandergriff retired in 2005 at the rank of Major after 24 years of active duty as an enlisted Marine and Army officer. He now works as a consultant to the Army and corporations. For a description of his work and links to his publications see The Essential 4GW reading list: Donald Vandergriff.
Two articles describing Don’s work:
- How bad is our bloat of generals? How does it compare with other armies?, 10 September 2012 — This goes to the heart of the problem.
- Don Vandergriff strikes sparks that might help reforge the US Army, 15 June 2014.
Some of his articles at the FM website about the US military:
- About military leaders in the 21st century: “Theirs Is to Reason Why”, 15 July 2010.
- Preface to Manning the Future Legions of the United States: Finding and Developing Tomorrow’s Centurions, 16 July 2010.
- Training of officers, a key step for the forging of an effective military force, 17 July 2010.
- Afghanistan war logs: Shattering the illusion of a bloodless victory, 28 July 2010.
- Dragging American Military Culture into the 21st Century, 13 August 2010.
- Leadership in action: when resource constraints meet conspicuous consumption, we just ignore the problem, 17 September 2010.
For More Information
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See all posts about the US military’s officer corps and training of its officers. Also see all the posts about the work of Donald Vandergriff and by Vandergriff.
The military-industrial complex is a monster. We can defeat it.
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