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Subject: Corruption In The American Military
SYSOP    3/30/2015 5:24:21 AM
 
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bob sykes       3/30/2015 7:40:16 AM
I wouldn't regard micromanagement as corruption. It's mere stupidity, and it hurts operational efficiency and performance. The true corruption, which abounds at the flag level, is political maneuvering, actual graft and sexual harassment. The number of flag officers who get cushy jobs in the defense industry is an embarrassment. 
 
Of course, our utterly corrupt, depraved and usually debauched political class are the ones setting the examples and choosing  our flag officers. 
 
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keffler25       3/30/2015 9:18:24 AM
The POLITICAL component (Potus) is what makes it corruption. Lyndon Johnson became a targeteer, not a STRATEGIST. The strategy is to be left to the politicians, the tactics is what belongs to the uniforms.     
 
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davebarnes    Wrong choice of word   3/30/2015 10:13:59 AM
What is described is not corruption in the commonly used manner.
 
Corruption is people taking/demanding bribes.
Corruption is buying item A and passing it off as item B.
Corruption is plotting to overthrow the civilian government.
 
 
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avatar3    Bob is correct   3/30/2015 10:27:15 AM
One of the reasons JFK approved Special Forces in the early 60's was because the senior blowhards that reached flag rank after WWII did away anything that did not fit into their neat Atomic Fulda Gap box. We were incapable of fighting a enemy with the force structured like an Armored Column. Special SF went around all that and until popularized by the John Wayne movie was considered a career ender for soldiers who wanted to carry the fight to the enemy. The micromanaging, politically correct, ticket punchers are still around but in greater force then before. What is needed is a POTUS who was in military who understands this.
 
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Robert Walther    Robert Walther   3/30/2015 12:31:20 PM
Allowing bureaucrats of any capacity to interfere in an live battle scenario is a definition of military psychosis. Any Senior 'commander' who allows this should be removed from command - at least - and subject to court martial. Media 'reporters' who communicate guesses and/or real (and potentially damaging) data from a live battle should be arrested and tried for treason/espionage.
 
These legal proceedings would determine the extent, if any, of any damage to US combat forces. No harm, no foul. Any US military dead? That's what firing squads are for.
 
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timon_phocas       3/30/2015 4:40:20 PM
Telling superiors what they want to hear is a corruption of the military. My daughter is a chief in the Navy. She calls it "gundecking". It's a response to "zero defects" expectations and and micromanagement by officers. You write up a report that says everything's combat ready. Everybody looks good. Except for the ship when it has to go into combat. This is pernicious.
 
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avatar3    Ranger Creed 1757   3/31/2015 1:02:26 AM
Rule Number 4, Ranger Creed, Robert Rogers 1757
 
 
 
"Tell the truth about what you see and do, There is an Army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell others about the Rangers but don't ever lie to a Ranger or Officer."
 
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TMLutas       4/2/2015 9:35:17 AM
We know that delays getting wounded to medical care increase deaths beyond what is unavoidable. The "golden hour" is something that has been identified as a metric that is important and that's right and proper. But micromanagement kills too and that appears not to be as universally recognized with no metrics to track it and blame to apportion when it happens. It is stretching out the combatants OODA loop which increases the chance we lose or at least take greater casualties than otherwise necessary. 
 
We need to measure the phenomenon and attach consequences to the abuse. The computing power needed to do this is available. When command knows that there is a timer going on every time they stick their nose in and that their names will attach to casualties caused by their intervention, the problem of micromanagement will shrink because we will have a feedback loop to punish those who engage in inappropriate intervention.   
 
The fact that we have not embedded this feedback loop and are increasing the risk enlisted and junior officers take unnecessarily is a corrupt offloading of risk from seniors who are engaging in career protection to juniors who bleed for it.  
 
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