Tommy Franks Indispensible?

[David Sklansky]

Maybe he is but I doubt it. When I used the term "indispensible" in the thread below, I was thinking more along the lines of the developers of laser guided weapons or the guy who figured out how to calculate exactly where mortar fire is coming from. If we had to choose between him and Franks it wouldn't be close.

[Rick Nebiolo]

David,

Regarding mortar or artillery fire. the original "Firefinder" system was developed down the hall from the lab I worked in at Hughes Aircraft during the eighties. I don't know the details of the development since everything is done behind closed doors on a "need to know" basis but if it is like other military systems/projects it takes a lot of bright and dedicated people working together to get it right. Rarely is there one "key" person, and social/political skills tend to matter in bringing the system together.

Below is a link to the Firefinder:

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/www/263.htm

Regards,

Rick

[scalf]

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[Clarkmeister]

If a single person in our military is indispensible then we did a horrific job of constructing our military.

[Lee Jones]

[David Sklansky]

Whether we like it or not, our military is as stong as it is because of codebreaking or technology undersood well by only a handful of people. If they tried to put themselves in a position where they wouldn't depend on them we would be significantly weaker.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Clark:

But this has certainly happened in our history. The death of Stonewall Jackson (and to a lessor extent) A.S. Johnston may have cost the South the Civil war. Also, if Grant didn't come out of nowhere, the North may not have won either.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Clarkmeister]

1. A "handful of people" isn't a single person.
2. I "significantly weaker" isn't the same as indespensible.
3. I somehow think we'd still be defeating Iraq even if every codebreaker we employ suddenly died of SARS tomorrow.

[Clarkmeister]

Hi Mason,

I don't want to be argumentative, but as far as I am concerned, Stonewall Jackson was not part of "our" military.

Anyways, even if it were conceded that we had indespensible personell 140 years ago, that doesn't change the fact that if we constructed our military that way today it would be a potentially catostrophic mistake.

[exeph]

Ok, but David's point is really more about the potential contribution of exceptional people than the structure of organizations. Point being: a genius can make unparalleled achievements, particularly in developing new theories/technologies, and despite the fact that in an ideal world you wouldn't choose to depend on a jerk/ego case your best interests still lie in leveraging his ability