Townsend; “we don’t get second-guessed a lot” by Trump administration
Chief Tango sends us a link to an interview with Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq when asked how the Trump Administration’s decentralization of command has affected the way troops are battling ISIS;
Townsend replied:
I will say that the current administration has pushed decision-making down into the military chain of command. And I don’t know of a commander in our armed forces that doesn’t appreciate that. I’ll — I’ll prefer not to go into specific examples.
I will say that probably a key result of that is that we don’t get second-guessed a lot. Our judgment here on the battlefield in the forward areas is trusted. And we don’t get 20 questions with every action that happens on the battlefield and every action that we take.
And again, I think every commander that I know of appreciates being given the authority and responsibility, and then the trust and backing to implement that. So, that’s what I’ll say.
In response to another similar question, Townsend said he believes both the Obama and Trump administrations are “all in” on defeating ISIS, but he said the Trump administration has “empowered the chain of command to make more decisions on their own, and has then given top cover to the chain of command, I think, for the decisions that are being made. And I think that’s important.
The article reminds us that Robert Gates and Leon Panetta complained that the Obama Administration interfered with their ability to wage war. From Military.com;
“It was micromanagement that drove me crazy,” Gates said at the Reagan National Defense Forum at President Ronald Reagan’s library in California over the weekend.
Gates said he had to deal with members of the NSC staff who directly called four-star generals on matters of strategy and tactics. The White House also attempted to make direct contact with Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Gates said.
“I told JSOC if they got a call from the White House you tell them to go to hell and call me,” Gates said to a round of applause from the audience.
Gates said the Obama White House too often let politics influence the policy when it came to the Defense Department.
“I think when a President wants highly centralized control at the White House, that’s not bureaucratic, that’s political,” said Gates, a Republican.
At the same forum, Panetta, a Democrat, had similar criticisms of Obama and his staff on military matters, and singled out the current campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in which Obama has ruled out the use ground combat troops.
Category: Politics
I’m sure that “Chaos” has something to do with that.
Now, if I was a commander on the ground and not “pulling my weight”, I’d be worried… I once saw then COL Mattis fire a BN S-3 during an exercise because the S-3 was clueless on what was going on.
That must’ve been a site to see.
I had the burden and privilege of firing a 1SG once. He sucked, his company was in tatters and morale was shit. I like to think that I improved their situation just from that one thing. But, they also had to rise up and move forward, not wallowing in previous misery too.
Getting rid of shitty leaders is always a relief, but rebuilding a unit afterward can be a challenge.
Does this include the commanders that shyt on individual troops for doing their job and who are now servining time? Think of Lt Clint!!!
I would love to hear Lt. General Townsend’s off-the-record opinions of the former administration, but I suspect I already know what they are.
You can add me to that list.
AAAAhhhh, further evidence that ADULTS are once again running the show!!!
Definition of ‘egotistical cult leader’ versus ‘pragmatic businessman’ in a nut shell.I don’t know how leaders did it, stifle the urge to do the right thing militarily because of political pressure. But, we survived (?) that environment, maybe our military is stronger for that leadership challenge.
We’ve bigger fishes to fry at this point than some 3rd world pedophile prophet following fanatics and their apologists.
We are going to need a well defined Commander’s Intent and enabled leaders to get us through this catastrophuck.
The last administration did the same bull shit that LBJ did back in the 60’s with his picking the routes, times and eligible targets.
That attitude led to many thousands of extra deaths in Vietnam and contributed to the political loss of approval from the American public as it lengthened the time needed to accomplish any kind of mission and the death toll for both sides.
Truly nice to see that the #Trump Administration knows what to do to get the petty politics out of the way of fighting a war where we have considerable blood and treasure already involved…
I assume you are not a big McNamara fan. I know I’m not.
It is nice to have that feeling. Just for the benefit to the military, Trump being President is good.
The only thing now is, Leaders can’t FUCK THIS UP! Don’t abuse the privilege, don’t get out of control, don’t allow your bloody ego to write checks your ass can’t cash, don’t become John Wayne or General Custer and get your guys killed because no one’s “asking questions”.
Leon Panetta is a dirtbag, a pompous dirtbag. Whenever I hear his name the first thing I remember is him flying home to California on weekends to “get away” at 35 grand a trip and at one point asking troops “how do you deal with being away from your family?” because he’s so out of touch. Scumbag.
“Don’t abuse the privilege,”
That is a serious and realistic concern. If you look at the personality traits these officials often express, they are valuable in that they provide the impetus for goal oriented actions, superior planning and analytical skills.
On the down side, the rewards system of the brain is not satisfied for the long term and regularly seeks more gratification. The power, freedom and intrinsic abilities that are amalgamated for success can, if given the opportunity, shift into actions that are suddenly available, but extrinsically detrimental.
Behavior is often seen as a completely voluntary and cognitive process, but more current research implies that it is actually much less voluntary than previously believed.
We often do better when our power is limited or subject to review. Of course if it is limited by peers there is the chance that the entire group if allowed to self-regulate will act poorly.
Stanly Milgram’s research (Obedience to Authority)is a landmark and highlights some of these principles.
I have my moments, even though I’m just a Dumb Sergeant.
The military..ALL BRANCHES are run by the noncoms..without them, the officers would be phucking up everything they touch, even more than usual!!!
Don’t confuse the issue with facts buddy. There’s an officer reading this who won’t understand that.
The Obama Misadministration, as most democrat and many republican administrations was mired in Politics first and foremost. Putting their fingers in the Political air before making any decision is just bad policy for anyone.
Couple that with the Dunning-Kruger Effect and you have disaster for the troops and the country.
Can someone explain to me why we are in Afghanistan still? Someone with a clue, not poodledick.
Just my opinion here:
To paraphrase Patton, Americans hate losing.
The collective perception, right or wrong, is that we did not -lose- Vietnam, we -quit-. Or, rather, the politicians quit.
So currently, there is a well believed concept that if we just do not quit, we must surely win, because the loser is the one that quits first. “Never quit”.
What we have in Afghanistan, is a culture that seems insane to us. And we to them. This is a situation where we cannot effectively wear them down. Culturally, the Himalayan Mountains try to wear them down every day. They have been the grit in empire gears for more than three thousand years.
And they believe it.
Very, very few outside forces have ever made a serious dent in that culture. They mostly did it with 3 key methods:
1) No effort to seriously occupy the place, just to fence it in.
2) No effort to change the local culture, just shrewd manipulation of one faction against the other, so they stay busy killing each other and not anyone we care about.
3) Ruthless and savage reprisals, against -tribes-, for provocations.
-That- should be our policy.
The alternative is to try and fully conquer and assimilate the place. Which is probably not something we are actually willing to do, because it likely means conquest like we did of the West, complete with depopulating whole regions via massacre.
And while the terrain is magnificent to view, we already have plenty of mountains.
If we are not wiling to fight -effectively-, Victoriously, then we must leave.
Ruthless and savage reprisals, against -tribes-, for provocations.
Forbidden by the Law of War. That one was probably forbidden before the 1949 Geneva Conventions (there was a “Hostage Case” at Nuremberg that laid out the limits of civilian reprisals as it stood in the ’40’s, but I’m not going to search it now). But it most certainly is forbidden now.
Not to mention that policy didn’t work worth a damn for the Soviets when they tried to pacify Afghanistan.
“Don’t abuse the privilege.”
I’m not concerned. Leaders know their asses are on the line and there are no excuses.
Natural selection will take care of weak or bad leaders. And the military will come out stronger.
We all would like to think they understand that, but ego has a vote too.
As far as weak/bad leaders, there will always be dumbasses getting promoted and people will wonder, “how the hell did that guy get put in charge?”
Unfortunately, there will also always be those who managed to hide character flaws at lower levels who get promoted.
To paraphrase Robert Caro: Power doesn’t corrupt. Rather, it reveals an individual’s true character.
Leaders are human. Humans fuck up sometimes, that will never change. Bad leaders are proof of the Peter Principle, Good leaders don’t have problems with Murphy’s Law. Then you have that “leader” that sounds like he’s consistently warming up for an operatic performance. All you hear is “ME ME ME ME!”. Fuck that guy.
I recall a -good- leader telling me,
“I have no successes but theirs. They have no failures but mine.”
What a breath of fresh air is this! What was that quote I was thinking of…?
Oh, yes – And now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of May.
Warfighting by grown-up rules? What an amazing concept. Trump may not have served but he understands the whole “tell the generals what you want done and let them do what they do best” idea. Got to be a relief for them.
I can’t wait to hear the excuses the Generals come up with when a few more years of “training and advising” don’t bring us “victory”.
Obama dropped leaflets with warnings. Trump dropped SoF in ISIS’ HQ.
I wonder if that had any impact….