Military Incompetence: Why the American Military Doesn't Win

by Richard A. Gabriel

The history of American military operations in the post-Vietnam era has been marked by failure and near-disaster. Since 1970, American forces have been committed in five operations--in Sontay to rescue prisoners, in Cambodia on behalf of the crew of the Mayaguez , in Iran to rescue the American hostages, in Beirut, and in Grenada--and in each case they have failed. Gabriel tells how and why each was crippled by faulty intelligence, clumsy execution, or poor planning by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Much of his information is still classified by the Pentagon and is revealed here for the first time. Finally, Gabriel offers a prescription for reform based on his twenty-one years of military experience.

Genres: Nonfiction, Military Fiction, War, Politics, History, American

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

And I said we're going to have the greatest staff system, and it'll be continental. And it'll be the greatest continental staff system, it'll be Prussian. And we'll have the greatest Prussian staff system and it'll get staffed full of bureaucrats, and it'll be so great, you'll be tired of end states. You'll tell me, no more end states, no more comd/sigs, I'm tired of end states, and I'll turn to you and say well hows the AAR? The AAR, it'll be so great and full of points. It'll be full of points, just the greatest.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult but necessary introspection after past blunders. Written in 1986 details the botched Rescue Mission of Embassy Staff held hostage in Tehran Iran after 1979 Khomeini Revolution. Same mistakes seem to have been repeated in Libya with Benghazi in 2012 and all the failed "Colour Revolutions" since 1986.

Dated but good read that investigates "systemic" failure within American Military (I note ironically that under Biden a witch-hunt is underway for "systemic" homophobia/transphobia). Gabriel explores the size, promotion philosophy/motivation, inter-service rivalry and problem of JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff) which (at the time) was 5 men supported by 2,000 Officers!

Among the detailed exhumation of 5 major mission fails was 1) Nov 1970 Sontay North Vietnam Prison Rescue 2) May 1975 Mayaguez Cambodia Piracy Interdiction 3) April 1980 Tehran Embassy Rescue 4) Oct 1983 Lebanon "Peace Keeper" Mission and Beirut Barrack Attack and 5) Oct 1983 Grenada Revolution Operation. Among the surprising revelations for me was that due to National Security concerns NONE of these failed/troubled missions has EVER been publicly reviewed as in this book. One would think that such self-examinations are a necessary requirement for as professional an armed service such as the U.S Military - but apparently not!

All-in-all a short, easy read. One can not help be troubled by the further billions that have been funneled in the Pentagon since - not to mention the vast number of "foreign adventures" that teh Democrats and Neo-Cons has embroiled America in since this book was written.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative and damning account of American special operations during the Cold War. Unfortunately a bit dated, so it's unclear whether its criticisms of US military organization still hold (though View From the Teeth in the War of the Flea definitely has some echoes from Iraq), but an interesting read nonetheless. Pretty accessible to a civilian audience.

[Tim Bevilacqua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to read about military blunders before we entered the Persian Gulf, twice. There are some universal guideslines to consider moving forward, regardless of your politics.

[David]

quoted on http://yarchive.net/space/politics/as...