The Lessons Of Robert McNamara

[heliochrome85]

I thought this article was very poignant.http://politics.theatlantic.co...a.php

also, the metafilter threadhttp://www.metafilter.com/83027/Strange

and if you havent watched, The Fog of War...http://video.google.com/videop...52804

a once in a generation mind, who was doomed by the vietnam war. Rightfully so, i think.

[Urabus GodofTraction]

I had to skip over the "ZOMG Obama can do no wrong" wank-fest, though once I did I realized that article had absolutely no substance to it.

Seriously, is there anything to take away from that article?

Bleh... McNamara, in my mind, will forever be at the forefront of the stagnation of America as an effective sustained military power.

They can't bomb an outhouse without my approval.

Politicians should politic, and leave the soldiering to the soldiers.

[heliochrome85]

congrats on your bang up reading skills.

Obama is mentioned 3 times in that article and only in the same paragraph.

as to what to take away:McNamara might have been a better fit to manage the transition out of Vietnam, but history, and contingency, thrust him into a role to which he was uniquely unsuited -- a role that he could not play, but that he did not know he could not play it until the reviews came in.

history is gonna be unkind to McNamara. How unfortunate.

[Urabus GodofTraction]

congrats on your bang up reading skills.

Obama is mentioned 3 times in that article and only in the same paragraph.

as to what to take away:McNamara might have been a better fit to manage the transition out of Vietnam, but history, and contingency, thrust him into a role to which he was uniquely unsuited -- a role that he could not play, but that he did not know he could not play it until the reviews came in.

history is gonna be unkind to McNamara. How unfortunate.

Ah, but he was nuthugged that whole paragraph.

Article was all together poorly written.

And history is already unkind to McNamara. For excellent reason.