No Adaption

In the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Jason Vest has an important story on how the U.S. sent its army into Iraq without so much as a counterinsurgency doctrine. “U.S. ground forces are only now beginning to readjust their approach toward counterinsurgency warfare. But to many knowledgeable observers, it’s looking like too little, too late–thanks largely to the Pentagon’s myopic leadership. It isn’t just that the Pentagon’s civilian ideologues and acquiescent brass failed to entertain even the possibility of an insurgency. … It’s also because, despite a plethora of writing from soldier-scholars and the informal attempts at innovation by a handful of junior officers, no formal organizational strategy exists that allows the army to rapidly and effectively adapt.”