Businessman Generals... NOT!!!

WARNING… what follows is a small rant on the state of US military command structure.  Read on if you must.

I’m sitting here with a headache, again.  I don’t know why but every Sunday I wake with my head fuzzy and hurting.  It seems odd, it’s my only late day so I get a chance to sleep.  There must be something tied tothe psychology of having free time at Bagram.  About the only thing to do on post that is different is to wander the bazaar on Fridays.  Truth be told, even it starts looking the same after a trip or three.  This is the strangest place I’ve ever been stationed.  

No one is in charge here.  Back in the Navy I grew up in every base you visited had someone in charge.  If something was wrong with the base there was the “one belly button” to reach out and touch.  There was no question of who controlled base projects, base security, base services.  These CO’s took pride in their bases.  There was always a base theater, base gym, a park with softball diamonds, tennis courts.  It didn’t matter where you were on the planet.  If you got dropped on a US military base, you knew it.  Then along came the Executive Management Certificate programs at schools like Wharton.  Now senior officers believed they knew how tooperate t military like a business.  Forget the fact that none of these bozos had ever worked for a real business in a management position.  They now had the paper that trumped all real world experience!  God help us. 

 Soon the “Enterprise” concept of organization came into favor.  This was an attempt to create a matrix organizational structure.  This structure works well n many businesses.  It is too bad though that the military is not one of those businesses.  There have been many brilliant military philosophers throughout the ages beginning with Sun Tzu.  None have advocated a decentralized and conflicting command structure.  Now, to be fair, a matrix organizational structure should not conflict with itself.  Hence the main issue.  What we now have is a series of stove pipe structures without a central authority to tie them together.  This brings me back to Bagram, urban planning gone horribly awry.  It’s not so much a base as a series of smaller bases cobbled together within one fence line.  The “one belly button” no longer exists.  In its place we have chaos pretending to be order.  There’s no telling when this stupid trend will correct itself.  Not likely in my career.  It facilitates a shell game with taxpayers money and allows senior officers to pretend they work for a productive business. 

 

The US Military, in the effort to become lean and mean and good stewards of the public’s funds has become a bloated and chaotic dysfunctional entity!  We are well be able to fight on a battle field but couldn’t manage our way out of a wet paper bag!

 It seems odd to me that I can be so critical of this military disorganization and yet so hopeful for the Afghan people.  I see their ability to press on, despite all odds.  I see their amazing history.  I see their fierce independence.  I see hope. 

 I hope with them.