Monday, September 22, 2008

Where I should have been last week


Having coffee with Galrahn and Eagle1.

....and if you thought Eagle1 would was sneaky and incognito at the Conversation with the Country.....

...but humor me for a bit and let me take this one bit further. Read Galrahn's POSTEX. I leave my grumpy thoughts in his comments, but that isn't what interests me.

He brings up the pleading question about where is today's Rickover, Cerbrowski, an "
evangelist" for lack of a better word. I would add a couple of Army Air Corps/Air Force types as well; Boyd and Mitchell.

Imperfect men all, as we all are (you too DeltaBravo, even if you do have an extra X and no Y) - but men who right or wrong (don't get me started on Cerbrowski) stuck their nose out to try to make their service better for a changing time. Like Galrahn, I am looking as well. I just don't see it. Have we bred them out of our system? Have we pushed them out of our system? Or, as I hear over beers - do many of our best just prefer to keep their heads down because they want another chance to lead Sailors at sea and don't want to find themselves spiked because they voiced an opinion someone who owns paper on them finds off message.

As a result, what do we have some of our best and most talented officers producing? Well, for starters, I recommend you read this from Defense News. Nothing personal or professional against RDML Carr, U.S. Navy Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (International Programs) and a great American, as I am only using his article as an example of a genre that we see all the time.
The 21st century is seeing a globalization dynamic that is reshaping maritime commerce and the role of maritime power. Globalization increases the need to prevent strategic disruption from environmental disasters, piracy, terrorism or competitors seeking advantages from the inherent vulnerabilities of the global "conveyer belt" of maritime trade.

One of the U.S. Navy's strategic imperatives is to develop and enhance cooperative partnerships that can contribute to the security of the global commons. Maritime cooperation, both commercial and military, serves as an anchor to global prosperity and stability.

Promoting maritime cooperation takes time and effort and is founded on the principles of transparency and information sharing. The U.S. Navy is committed to enhancing long-standing maritime relationships and creating opportunities to develop new ones.
...
As the United States seeks to strengthen partnerships in the maritime domain, the theater commanders and their naval components are looking for new ways to build cooperation with countries in their areas of responsibility. Navy IPO works closely with their staffs to ensure programs are aligned with their specific requirements, and consistent with the secretary of the Navy and the chief of naval operations global, cross-theater perspective.

In short, maintaining maritime partnerships is central to the success of the 21st-century Navy. We cannot secure the global maritime commons alone. Navy International Programs is one important tool in the kit for our leadership to help build those partnerships and make them last.
This is a dry, dead type of writing that reads like what it is; largely a aggregate of talking points, buzz words, and doctrine tied together to sell something everyone knows about but no one seems to be buying. Probably largely written by one of his Staff Weenies and edited through a thought numbing blanderization of a chop-chain into the prose version of un-salted, un-buttered grits.

Come on Navy! Time to get our A-game going. RDML Carr, I know you are a more dynamic writer that that; if you wrote the whole thing - cowboy up next time and give us more umph! If your Staff gave it to you - fire them up!

OK, that is it - the unnamed Staff Weenie has put the last straw on top. "Global Commons" has replaced the 2004/5-ish Human Capital Strategy on the Bu11sh1t Bingo list --- and my tag line at the top of the blog. Yes, it is that bad.

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