Isis and Doctrine Man

ISIS and Doctrine Man; How well does our plan against ISIS stack up.

Sep 29 2014

How well does our plan against ISIS stack up. A tongue-in-cheek approach to a very serious topic.

I have been reading a lot lately about how our evolving strategy on ISIS stands up to the Weinberger Doctrine or the fabled “Powell Approach”. When thinking about doctrine you can’t help but have your thoughts drift to Doctrine Man (DM). https://www.facebook.com/DoctrineMan For those of you who don’t follow Doctrine Man, he is an ongoing comic about the military that is widely popular in current military circles. Often I find “real” experiences of myself and friends contained on its pages. Some days DM seems to be more in touch with the military mind than anyone in the Pentagon, White House, or public, ever seems to be.

Powell stated that these essential questions must be answered before we should commit any troops to combat. Although the Powell Doctrine has its detractors by saying it makes it near impossible to get into combat because it is almost impossible to answer all questions “Yes”.

I take a different approach to this logic. What Powell was saying is none of these questions have easy answers and that you may only get a 90% (of less) yes. Is that still enough to send our soldiers to kill and die. Please understand the “Boots on the Ground” (BOTG) fans are in reality asking exactly that. BOTG means soldiers and marines, our sons and daughters are going to die. Powell makes us look at ourselves and see what we are getting into.

DM brings the Powell Doctrine down to the troop combat planning level:

Powell:

1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?

2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?

3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?

4. Have all other nonviolent policy means been fully exhausted?

5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?

6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?

7. Is the...