Taiwan Strait: gone the way of the Fulda Gap
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 10:17PM POST: Does The Navy Have A Place In McChrystal's War?, by Christopher Albon, USNI Blog, November 30, 2009
Nifty argument that reminds us the Navy--throughout our history--has been the natural SysAdmin player when it comes to overseas situations (whereas the Army ruled the West and the Marines ruled our littoral--writ large).
Key bit:
Staff corp officers might not be able to plan a defense of the North Atlantic, but they can run health clinics, manage construction projects, and coordinate with NGOs. They are America's soft-power specialists. If the Navy is going to take advantage of the humanitarian and development institutional knowledge of its staff corp officers, it must overcome its cultural biases towards the interests of line officers. In the 1980s, the Soviet Army learned that Afghanistan was not the Fulda Gap. Now, the US Navy must accept it is not the Taiwan Strait either.
As kick-in-the-ass endings go, nicely applied.
(Thanks: Lexington Green)
Reader Comments