My Fellow Prisoners... News from the Front

Tom Barnett doesn't much appreciate my 13th favorite fighter pilot's keen geo-political skeelz as they relate to the Caucasus. He quotes the best part of the Newsweek article, focusing on McCain's Wing Attack Plan Robert strategy...

"There has always been a section of the Georgian leadership who believed the only way to internationalize this problem was to start a fight," says a senior U.S. official who's not authorized to speak on the record. "We've been telling them all along: Don't do it!" One senior Saakashvili adviser saw the showdown coming a year ago and told friends he was close to quitting in frustration. "They're going to start a war in order to lose it," the aide warned two colleagues, who spoke to NEWSWEEK on condition of anonymity. Nevertheless, Saakashvili denies any intention of dragging Georgia's allies into war. "I absolutely don't want Europe to fight for us," he says. "But Europe faces a choice: to stop [Russian] aggression here or wait for it to claim its next victim."

Still, GOP realists aren't sure his version of events can be trusted. Some natives of the breakaway regions say Georgian troops targeted civilians—as Moscow has repeatedly argued. "What worries me is that Senator McCain did not talk to senior Russian officials," says Simes. "I always thought if you're a combat pilot, you'd want to understand the enemy. But neither he nor his advisers are interested in getting the Russian side of the story."

Well, yeah, if you're desiring to be a better combat pilot you'd want to understand the enemy, his advantages and limitations as well as your own. Hell, one guy even invented a theory, a process and strategic aims for doing just that. But better (insightful, curious, calmly firm and confident) has not really been in the lexicon of all these armchair warriors, nor their near-washout spokesman now running for president.

Instead, let us turn to a man who jumped out of planes on purpose. He seems to be catching up to his long-time PR as a thinking man's soldier, even if he's still a political one

Petraeus also came out unambiguously in his talk at Heritage for opening communications with America’s adversaries, a position McCain is attacking Obama for endorsing. Citing his Iraq experience, Petraeus said, “You have to talk to enemies.” He added that it was necessary to have a particular goal for discussion and to perform advance work to understand the motivations of his interlocutors.

All that was the subject of one of the most contentious tussles between McCain and Obama in the first presidential debate, with Obama contending that his intent to negotiate with foreign adversaries without “precondition” did not mean that he would neglect diplomatic “preparation.”

McCain, apparently perceiving an opportunity for attack, Tuesday again used Obama’s comments to attack his judgment. “Sen. Obama, without precondition, wants to sit down and negotiate with them, without preconditions,” McCain said, referring to Iran.

Yet Petraeus emphasized throughout his lecture that reaching out to insurgent groups — some “with our blood on their hands,” he said — was necessary to the ultimate goal of turning them against irreconcilable enemies like Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Just as telling the simple truth or pointing out the obvious is somehow viewed as brilliance or bravery (or foolishness) in boardrooms and Sunday morning shows, Petraeus is saying nothing unusual for even a lowly field officer with opposable thumbs and the Army's equivalent of an eMBA from Fort Leavenworth. Take a look--visiting Majors get to write papers quoting Karl Weick and to think in terms of "Sensemaking" within organizations, namely their units. Most get the blindingly obvious strategic nature of respect, empower, include. And most are repulsed by the slovenly tactics of bribe, bullshit, buy time. But they're just middle management, told "we have to walk before we run."

"My fellow prisoners" was perversely accurate. Except it's the "The Mavericks™" and "CEO administrations™" who are the captors.