The Army has summoned the top U.S. commander in Iraq back to Washington to preside over a board that will pick some of the next generation of Army leaders, an unusual decision that officials say represents a vote of confidence in Gen. David H. Petraeus’s conduct of the war, as well as the Army counterinsurgency doctrine he helped rewrite. The Army has long been criticized for rewarding conventional military thinking and experience in traditional combat operations, and current and former defense officials have pointed to Petraeus’s involvement in the promotion board process this month as a sign of the Army’s commitment to encouraging innovation and rewarding skills beyond the battlefield. Some junior and midlevel officers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been particularly outspoken in their criticisms, saying the Army’s current leadership lacks a hands-on understanding of today’s conflicts and has not listened to feedback from younger personnel. “It’s unprecedented for the commander of an active theater to be brought back to head something like a brigadier generals board,” said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former head of the Army War College.
When George C. Marshall took over as Army Chief of Staff, one of his first moves was to unload the hodgepodge of Army generals who had spent a career drinking the “old war” kool-aid. It was a controversial plan at the time, but it revolutionized the force, effectively destroying the Army good old boys club, a bunch of stubborn old bureaucrats who gave Billy Mitchell the boot while the Nazis were developing a brilliant choreography of infantry, armor, and aircraft known as the blitzkrieg. The restructuring paid off. Omar Bradley was promoted straight from Lt Colonel to Brigadier General, skipping over the rank of full colonel. George S. Patton was a colonel in 1939–by 1943 he had three stars. Dwight Eisenhower was rotting away in a staff job up until 1942, two years later he was leading Operation Overlord as Supreme Allied Commander. And so it goes. So do I see a bit of a connection here? A brilliant leader going sapper on Big Army’s cumbersome checklist style of officer promotion so as to better posture the force to fight tomorrow’s war? Yeah, you betcha.
