{"id":36522,"date":"2016-12-13T01:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=36522"},"modified":"2016-12-03T10:14:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T15:14:48","slug":"qotd-in-combat-theres-nothing-new-under-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2016\/12\/13\/qotd-in-combat-theres-nothing-new-under-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: In combat, there’s nothing new under the sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face NOTHING new under the sun.<\/p>\n

For all the \u201c4th Generation of War\u201d intellectuals running around today saying that the nature of war has fundamentally changed, the tactics are wholly new, etc, I must respectfully say \u2026 \u201cNot really\u201d: Alex the Great would not be in the least bit perplexed by the enemy that we face right now in Iraq, and our leaders going into this fight do their troops a disservice by not studying (studying, vice just reading) the men who have gone before us.<\/p>\n

We have been fighting on this planet for 5000 years and we should take advantage of their experience. \u201cWinging it\u201d and filling body bags as we sort out what works reminds us of the moral dictates and the cost of incompetence in our profession. As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don\u2019t know a hell of a lot more than just the [Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures]? What happens when you\u2019re on a dynamic battlefield and things are changing faster than higher [Headquarters] can stay abreast? Do you not adapt because you cannot conceptualize faster than the enemy\u2019s adaptation? (Darwin has a pretty good theory about the outcome for those who cannot adapt to changing circumstance \u2014 in the information age things can change rather abruptly and at warp speed, especially the moral high ground which our regimented thinkers cede far too quickly in our recent fights.) And how can you be a sentinel and not have your unit caught flat-footed if you don\u2019t know what the warning signs are \u2014 that your unit\u2019s preps are not sufficient for the specifics of a tasking that you have not anticipated?<\/p>\n

Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to overcoming an independent enemy\u2019s will are not allowed that luxury.<\/p>\n

General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, quoted by Geoffrey Ingersoll, “General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis Email About Being ‘Too Busy To Read’ Is A Must-Read”, Business Insider<\/em><\/a>, 2013-05-13.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face NOTHING new under the sun. For all the \u201c4th Generation of War\u201d intellectuals running around today saying that the nature of war has fundamentally changed, the tactics are wholly new, etc, I must respectfully say \u2026 \u201cNot really\u201d: Alex the Great would not be in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5,41],"tags":[31,572],"class_list":["post-36522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-military","category-quotations","tag-army","tag-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-9v4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36523,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36522\/revisions\/36523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}