Spirit, Blood and Treasure

Rating:
Summary: Author Excerpt
Review: Although the Cold War has been over for 10 years, the basic doctrines, organization, and even weapons of America's military establishment remain unchanged from those that stood ready to confront the Soviet Union on the plains of Europe. We still maintain the large percentage of middle and senior ranking officers that would have been needed to accept and train the draftees filling out our armor and infantry divisions. Our manuals still envision conventional conflict against a large foe with weapons and tactics similar to our own. And even our new weapons were conceived to defeat their hypothetical counterparts that might have rolled out of Soviet factories. To foot the bill, we are now spending as much (in inflation adjusted dollars) as we did during most years of the Cold War, and roughly three times as much as the combined total of all of the conceivable "threats."

Such waste would be regrettable in view of our other domestic priorities, but it is also locking us into outmoded patterns of thought, perhaps our own Maginot Line syndrome. Unfortunately the nature of war around the world is changing. Aside from the occasional Saddam, no one wages war by lining up his forces like he was preparing for a second Battle of the Bulge. Instead, we face enemies that blend into the jungles or teeming urban sprawl, that present few targets for our wonder weapons, and that prosecute a dirty and vicious form of war that one might describe as "military terrorism." These tactics have been remarkably successful, driving us from Vietnam, Beirut, and Somalia. We can certainly expect that those who wish us harm are learning from these experiences and so will become even better at applying them, rendering our Cold War weapons and doctrines even less effective in the future.

While not the first to examine why America's military is so resistant to change, this book presents the first coherent explanation in terms of the evolving generations of war and the social dynamics of large, stable systems. It insists that change must start with our people and our systems for selecting, retaining, and promoting them, then with our doctrines, and then finally with our weapons and hardware programs. Without fundamental change of this magnitude, we will certainly confront more and more enemies employing the agile but brutal "fourth generation" strategies that have rendered our conventional might impotent or irrelevant whenever the two have clashed around the world. How to Change What should the American people expect from Congress and the military as the United States begins to adapt to this changing face of warfare? Retired air force colonel John Boyd, a leading military theorist, stated that effective military systems prioritize the components of which they are composed: people, ideas, and hardware. In the United States, the people aspect is most important. Boyd responded to the army's emphasis on synchronization-the methodical timing of several events in time and space-with the comment, "you can only synchronize watches not people." He also emphasized that "people fight wars, not machines, and they use their minds." In sum, military systems that give people top priority adapt to the changing nature of warfare more quickly than those that emphasize machines. Boyd defined this in testimony before Congress in April 1991: "There are three basic elements [to win wars] and in order of importance they are: People, because wars are fought by people not weapons. Strategy and tactics [ideas] because wars fought without innovational ideas become . . . blood baths winnable or not. Hardware, because weapons that don't work or can't be [produced] in quantity will bring down even the best people and best ideas." Boyd went on to describe how each aspect is interrelated: our military needs to be trained in innovative tactics and strategies that will lead to quick decisive victory at minimum cost to American lives . . . This requires, first, an understanding of conflict. Conflict can be viewed as repeated cycles of observing-orienting-deciding-acting by both sides (and at all levels). The adversary that can move through these cycles faster gains an inestimable advantage by disrupting his enemy's ability to respond effectively . . . These create continuous and unpredictable change. Therefore our tactics and strategy need to be based on the idea of adapting to and shaping this change faster than the enemy30

An effective military system is able to combine the concepts that Boyd describes into its military culture. If this is true, then why has the U.S. defense establishment failed to reform itself? Americans love to boast about their innovation, their ability to adapt and overcome adversity. If the current establishment is so out of date, corrupt, and slow to adapt to the twenty-first century, why does no one do anything about it except a few "reformers"? This book will address changes needed in the defense establishment. We define the "establishment" as consisting of more than its actual fighting component. A modern military machine, especially one as large as that of the United States, is composed of several interrelated institutions. To field a rifleman on the battlefield requires these institutions to work in harmony to ensure that he is well trained and led, is employing the right doctrine, and is equipped for whatever mission that confronts him. In terms Boyd would have understood, this book examines the complex process for change by dividing the essays into three parts: people, ideas, and hardware. Like an effective combined-arms team, the authors of the following essays represent all the services, as well as Department of the Defense, its acquisition community, and Congress. Some of the authors are service members-both active and retired-while others are government civilians. Their motivation is simple: They are patriots who believe America will lose its next war unless their ideas are adopted by a national security establishment badly in need of change.

Rating:
Summary: A Must for the Patriotic American
Review: In a world of political truth, this book provides a useful look at "the rest of the story." For its veracity, every "big picture" depends upon a thorough understanding of each of its composite parts. Warfare is one of the most complex of topics. Its success depends upon everything from moral certainty to infrastructure protection. Spirit, Blood, and Treasure is a compilation of the opinions of experts from each of the major categories of military knowledge. These are experts with no particular political agenda. As such, their shared viewpoints provide a stepping stone toward ultimate truth - every American's dream.

The U.S. military/industrial complex has just scored a resounding victory in Iraq. It has demonstrated an unprecedented ability to combine electronic surveillance, firepower, and psychological warfare. But, as Major Vandergriff implies (and President Lincoln pointed out), the U.S. government is still one "of the people, for the people, by the people." We are all ultimately responsible for everything that our government does or does not do. The author of this fine book has shared with his fellow Americans what they might have trouble discovering any other way. He is a true patriot at a time where freedom of speech has become increasingly more important.

Rating:
Summary: A Must for the Patriotic American
Review: In a world of political truth, this book provides a useful look at "the rest of the story." For its veracity, every "big picture" depends upon a thorough understanding of each of its composite parts. Warfare is one of the most complex of topics. Its success depends upon everything from moral certainty to infrastructure protection. Spirit, Blood, and Treasure is a compilation of the opinions of experts from each of the major categories of military knowledge. These are experts with no particular political agenda. As such, their shared viewpoints provide a stepping stone toward ultimate truth - every American's dream.

The U.S. military/industrial complex has just scored a resounding victory in Iraq. It has demonstrated an unprecedented ability to combine electronic surveillance, firepower, and psychological warfare. But, as Major Vandergriff implies (and President Lincoln pointed out), the U.S. government is still one "of the people, for the people, by the people." We are all ultimately responsible for everything that our government does or does not do. The author of this fine book has shared with his fellow Americans what they might have trouble discovering any other way. He is a true patriot at a time where freedom of speech has become increasingly more important.

Rating:
Summary: Revelation!
Review: The fall of Rome is upon us! In the 5th Century the great Roman legion was in decline. The infusion of poorly trained and unloyal levies, unadaptive tactical doctrine and an officer corps corrupted by its own acquisition system, left it open to the rapidly evolving tactics of the opponents it faced, because it focused internally. And it seems so today, with the U.S. Military!

The Centurian Vandergriff and his legion of truth tellers have given the public and our electors an opportunity to right what is going wrong! I not only read each essay once, but reread them due to their academic depth, their interrelation with the other essays, and their hard-hitting recommendations to heal what is diseased. I find it positively, yet frightening, ironic that an Army major seems to know how to "get it right" with a total analysis of those institutions that comprise our military; but the military itself, manned by an officer corps concerned with politics and promotions, and adviced by the "brain trusts" in our nation's capital-only concerned with appeasing a few for their next contract-focus only on technology, and a doctrine of attrition under different, yet Hollywood sounding, names. I bet he is a popular guy among the "leaders" of our military! Of course, this makes it more appealing!

As I read the endnotes on several of the essays, I look forward to your next book of truth *The Pathway to Victory: Achieving Military Excellence for America* Major Vandergriff!! Are you thinking of running for office after they force you to retire?