FORTY SECOND BOYD and the big picture

Eject! Eject! Eject! ^ | 1/1/08 | Bill Whittle

[Dawnsblood]

This is a story about success and failure. It is a story about Iraq, and of something much bigger than Iraq. It is, perhaps, a small look into what makes victory, and defeat. It is a tale of infantrymen, of brave soldiers in dusty alleys a world away. It is a story of generals and strategies, too.

But to understand our newfound success there, to know perhaps a little of how we achieved it and most importantly, how to keep it, we need to move away from that Mesopotamian desert and those boots on the ground, and back to a different desert on the other side of the world a half century ago. For there, perhaps, a vision was vouchsafed to a most unlikely warrior priest… the kind of insight that comes perhaps once or twice in all of human history.

There are some diverse threads to connect here. But if you have the patience to take a walk with me, you may perhaps see things in a way you have not seen them before.

[Dawnsblood]

The best essayist in the Blogosphere is back, telling the story of a man most do not know, but who made a huge contribution to our nation's security.

[Dawnsblood]

In part two, he applies Boyd's lessons to Iraq and the surge.

[tanuki]

Good read! Thanks for posting. It is definitely wisdom to come back to.

[IGOTMINE]

Boyd bump!

[230FMJ]

Wow! Must Read Again.

[rbg81]

If you want to learn more about Boyd, read Robert Coram’s book:

http://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316796883/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199279967&sr=1-1

An interesting, but flawed man. Made many great contributions, but his family paid for every one of them.

[mad_as_he$$]

I believe all interesting men are “flawed” in someones eyes. That is because most people cannot wrap their heads around how interesting people look at the world.

[alfa6]

Lookee here, lad

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[KARAMBIT]

Excellent Read.

I hope Petraeus has his way with the promotion board.
Regarding the Officers we’ve lost we should try to get them back.

[Stentor]

Bump.

[Tolik]

Always interesting Bill Whittle !

This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for the perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author all 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention. You can see the list of articles I pinged to lately  on  my page.
You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about). Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.  

[jazusamo]

Outstanding essay. With part I and II it’s long but worth the read. I will take acception to his mention of Haditha as being an atrocity.

[GOPJ]

Tank commanders may be charging cavalrymen at heart; sub skippers may be deer hunters using patience and stealth. But fighter pilots are Musketeers. They are swordsmen whose survival depends on remaining on the offensive… that is to say, they are men who survive because they can ...

Great read - ping

[jazusamo]

Ping!

[Tallguy]

Boyd’s E-M theory – this being the lesser of his two breakthrough ideas – would eventually lead, through many pitched bureaucratic battles, to the design of the F-15 Eagle...

First off, this is a great article. But I have to take some issue with the above statement since it was the F16, not the F15, that was the product of Boyd's E-M theory. In fact the Boyd team was not all that thrilled with the F16 as it was fielded because they thought that even that small jet could have been smaller if they had dispensed with the onboard Radar system.

Boyd's Fighter Mafia wanted the most nimble dogfighter possible. What they got in the F16 was a strike fighter that was by most standards the best dogfighter then available.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Fantastic book too!

[RedRover]

Thanks, jaz. Very good piece (I take the same exception but it’s not worth the quibble).

[Billthedrill]

Outstanding read. Should be mailed to every single Senator and Congresscritter and just maybe we'd get a little less of this infuriating armchair generalship we've been seeing in the primaries.

One reason real swordsmen and other martial artists depend so much on muscle memory is that it minimizes the OODA loop. Observe, react. That's a lot easier to do with a sword or a fist than it is with an armored division.

Great article!

[r9etb]

An interesting read, but Whittle shows a serious lack of awareness, too. The OODA loop is wonderful when it works -- but there's a lot of noise out there, and a sh*tload of crackpots, all of whom have Great Ideas out there for exactly which decisions and actions will make all the difference.

When Whittle talks about "agility," and "swordlessness" and all the rest -- he talks about it as if it's two swordsmen, undisturbed by anybody else.

Now take (say) a passel of FR Keyboard Kommandos, and toss them into the room with our swordsman, all yelling advice observations, and then complaining loudly when he does something else ....

The fog of war applies in this discussion, too -- but Whittle tends to leave it out. And that's really where he kinda loses his point.

Whittle's argument focuses on actions while we're in the war. But he seriously misses the real point: it's not what you do when you're in the war, but in how you prepare for the war in the first place.

Boyd's OODA loop is not something you get in real-time, you get it through months and years of training and repetition.

The REAL lesson we should take from the article -- and it IS a valuable article -- is that we need to change how we prepare our armed forces for war, be they grunts or generals. He mentions it in passing, but he forgets to emphasize it.

[AZLiberty]

I knew about OODA, but not about Boyd. Thanks for the post.