ARMY & NAVY CLUB: To win the fast-paced and brutal battles of the future, Army generals must let their subordinates off the leash, the Chief of Staff said here yesterday. “What we do, in practice, is we micromanage and overly specify everything the subordinate has to do, all the time,”Gen. Mark Milley told an Atlantic…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: Last year, the US Air Force fell face-first onto a buzzsaw when it proposed dramatic cuts to the Air National Guard, whose supporters raised a storm of protest in the Congress. Now there are signs that the next big budget battle will be between the regular active-duty Army and the Army National Guard. Or,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: In war, as in stand-up comedy, timing is everything, and Gen. Ray Odierno’s timing could hardly be worse. This week, in the prestigious journal Foreign Policy, the Army Chief of Staff published an essay on “The Force of Tomorrow” that is long, thoughtful, a little bland –- and completely overtaken by events. It hit…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.