Comments on: MOD Spites Face, Cuts off Nose

By: Sunday SDR, Chapter 4: Partnership | afoe | A Fistful of Euros | European Opinion

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:32:14 +0000

[...] suggests a possible use for the exportable surplus of generals identified in comments here. * how we most effectively generate influence within coalitions and with our key [...]

By: Sunday SDR, Chapter 4: Partnership « Alternate Seat of TYR

Sunday SDR, Chapter 4: Partnership « Alternate Seat of TYR — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:30:11 +0000

[...] suggests a possible use for the exportable surplus of generals identified in comments here. * how we most effectively generate influence within coalitions and with our key [...]

By: Sunday SDR, Chapter 3: Adaptability and Influence | afoe | A Fistful of Euros | European Opinion

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:38:59 +0000

[...] lacks credibility – at the same time as this statement was issued, the MOD is in the process of shutting down its Research and Assessments Branch, whose job this is, as the MOD’s favourite blog points [...]

By: Sunday SDR, Chapter 3: Adaptability and Influence « Alternate Seat of TYR

Sunday SDR, Chapter 3: Adaptability and Influence « Alternate Seat of TYR — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:35:13 +0000

[...] credibility – at the same time as this statement was issued, the MOD is in the process of shutting down its Research and Assessments Branch, whose job this is, as the MOD’s favourite blog points [...]

By: COINTASTIC

COINTASTIC — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:45:18 +0000

Heyzeus Jeff M, stop being such a tit, MOD is clearly run by accountants so don’t be so silly. That is the context to this irrelevant unit being chopped.

That being said, where are the ARAG products that are relevant to the difficult questions of the day? Yeah maybe the odd officer who did a bad job in the first place was allowed a forum to air his views retrospectively. Wasn’t one of the major points of concern re ARAG that Brit officers couldn’t direct the fine pool of minds to attempt to answer one of the very difficult questions of the day.

By: Laleh

Laleh — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:15:29 +0000

“you’re as entitled to your opinion as anyone.”

I didn’t voice an opinion on Naveh.

By: Laleh

Laleh — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:14:24 +0000

Did I mention scholarship? The people who are being targetted by the arrest warrants are military officers not scholars. That is what I was talking about. Why so defensive?

By: Jeff M

Jeff M — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:22:59 +0000

Getting rid of organizations like ARAG clearly demonstrate MoD is being run by numbskulls. Meantime, highly dysfunctional outfits such as DSTL grow ever larger, despite the quality of their products being mostly rubbish. Perhaps the Research branch can be paid for by the Americans. I suspect more Americans than Brits actually read their products anyway.

By: Tom Wein

Tom Wein — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:00:31 +0000

Eamonn, I think we are treating NI too generally. We were too brutal to start with, and worst of all, our brutality was untargeted (see internment). We learned that lesson, we are qualified to tell others of the merits of it, and by the 80s our campaign was indeed something to be proud of, not least because our intelligence was sophisticated enough to allow us to target our occasional extra-legal efforts.

I think, to return to Laleh’s point, a failure of the IDF in recent years has been that it has failed to discriminate sufficiently, and has consequently failed to split the population from Hamas.

(On a side note, there are better measures of effectiveness than whether the army is proud of having done something).

By: David Betz

David Betz — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:00:00 +0000

An afterthought: I am just now reviewing a book manuscript by an Israeli officer on recovering from surprise through adaptability and flexibility which is very good in places and excellent in others. Given that these things are evidently the preoccupation of the British Army at present I think it would do very well to hear what he has to say. My former PhD student Eitan Shamir’s book on Adoption and Adaptation of Mission Command in US, UK, and Israel should be taught in the Defence Academy. Dima Adamsky’s work on innovation is cutting edge. KOW’s own Thomas Rid is currently in Israel on a fellowship; so presumably he sees something of significant worth to learn by being there. I could go on but why bother. If you really think there is nothing to learn from Israel despite the outpourings of Israeli scholarship on contemporary warfrare and scholarship by others on the experience of Israel then your mind is closed. Your loss.