What not to do during a Press Conference

A spoof on Donald Rumsfeld and his interaction with the press.  Although very funny- probably not how to win the support of the media! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhYzcPdU7XY

West Point Class of 2002.

President Bush delivered their Commencement Address.  Subject of a book called "In A Time a War" by Bill Murphy.

The true story of the West Point class of 2002, who are the first cadets in a generation to graduate during a time of war.  Several never came back. 

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1721335/in_a_time_of_war/

We must never forget.

What is Your Quest?

Since 9-11, what is our quest? Kind of like that Monty Python's Holy Grail. What is our end state?

Read this article and Google our President's 'Priorities for the 21st Century Defense'.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/23/obama_needs_a_grand_strategy

What is America's Quest?

The Real Situation Room

Nice, sugar-coated Situation Room video from the White House PR Office:











http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/inside-white-house-situation-room

Postmonderism, Culture and America

What is the definition of Postmodernism?

Deconstruction of what is TRUTH. Where truth comes from. Albert Mohler (President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary presents an excellent lecture on what Postmodernism is, obviously from a Biblical Worldview.

One can ignore the 'Christian Evangelism' point of view, but has wide-ranging implications for our society as a whole. 'What does it mean to you' is a postmodern statement that is increasing in popularity.

We had some great discussions in class yesterday concerning Culture and the American perspective. What is culture? Does America have a 'culture'? Is our culture better than others? What makes us different from Great Britain, France or Russia? History, language, dialect, accent, religion, etc all come together to create a culture. What does that say about America?

The underlying question for America is: are we a Melting Pot Society or are we a Multicultural Society? First we must properly define multiculturalism. There are two great tidal waves that are coming toward each other in America. We are witnessing this in slow motion in America today.

One hold dear to Truth. This foundation is not solely owned by Evangelical Christians. It is also held by Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, Orthodox, Judaism and others. These hold to basic tenants of fundamental right and wrong. There is a social fabric that holds to a greater meaning, purpose of life.

The other belief system are today coined as 'progressives' or post-modernists. There is no meaning but your own. You our 'progressive' in your thinking because you have become enlightened in thinking. When you listen to this broadcast, it will open your eyes. We see this, unfortunately, in the 'Post Modern' churches (and I use 'churches' very loosely). Rob Bell is an excellent example where the Bible no longer holds any authority, because the authority belongs to the reader.

One of the largest components of any culture is Religion. Religion, orthodoxy of any kind, is becoming irrelevant. However, history has shown when a society and nations disregard some notion of Truth, self-destruction is close at hand.

Read 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand. Although the novel dismisses religion or a 'God', it attests to the fact that there must be a moral authority code. Relativism is destructive. Right and wrong must have a basis upon a foundation, not merely changing with one's opinions.

Family Planning

Watch this video from the TED symposium by Hans Rosling. He is Swedish and is a professor of Global Health at his institute. The information is very interesting, and will challenge your world-view. The claims made must be scrutinized and put into a proper context.

What is the proper 'causal' relationship? Why do these developing countries have, statistically, more children versus the developed countries (8 v. 2.1). Is it because of 'family planning' that we have that they do not? Is it because they need more people to 'work the fields'- because they are an agrarian society? America was there no less than 60 years ago.

It is not because of family planning that our average children per family has dropped to 2.1 today. I submit that it is because of a myriad of reasons, not just one. Therefore, drawing a conclusion that more 'Family Planning Funding' to these undeveloped nations will decrease their per-family size, therefore reduce the demand for scarce resources, therefore decrease poverty, therefore decrease mortality/morbidity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTznEIZRkLg

When he says 'we must stop population growth and Family Planning', I hear is sterilization and global funding for abortion (via the UN and Planned Parenthood). This is an error in drawing a linear conclusion from one data point. His mantra is that we must 'Stop Population Growth'.

What are your conclusions? Does it challenge your world-view? It does for me.

Holy Cow! Advances in Civiliation

Two YouTube Videos that my leave you speechless:

How Social Media has enabled our civilization to leap generations ahead like no other technology in mankind's history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo&feature=related


A 'Holy Cow' moment when you watch this video on how we as an American Culture are impacted globally by other 'Cultures' and the vastness of how our future will be determined. We are not 'alone' nor 'isolated' anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp_oyHY5bug&feature=related

However, we can be proud that much of this technology was invented and enabled by either Americans or those whose talents were unleashed by the American Institutions!

Power Point Lesson

As staff officers in today's Army (even in the civilian world), we often hide behind Power Point bullet comments (aka sentence fragments) to mask our poor command the English Language.

This is demonstrated by the video clip below. Just imagine the same group wearing uniforms and you have the perfect example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rHFNJnDPYY&feature=player_embedded

Here at ILE, we have written two papers already (out of a total of six, I believe). Writing is a lost art, as we can see how poorly written the Army Regulations are. I have been a part of three regulation re-writes during my tour at the Army Human Resources Command, and can testify that coherent (and grammatically correct) is nearly non-existent.

I fear that this will continue, as a society as a whole, as technology improves and more Data-Underlying-Messaging-Base-Abbreviated-Syntax-Systems takes hold. (yeah, you figured out the abbreviation!)

Disclaimer!

Since this post is evolving from a personal observation blog to a more direct 'share your thoughts as an Army Officer'- the following disclaimer has to be posted:

Drew Winslow, Major, US Army
Student, Command and General Staff School, Fort Belvoir, Virgina
3 JAN 2012 - 19 APR 2012

"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense or the U.S. Government."

Well, there you have it, sportsfans! This blog is disclaimed!

Sophisticated Thinking

As end week two of ILE, I continue to be amazed at the level of interaction and thinking of my peers in this class. It has been since my Master's Degree that I have been surrounded by people who are not sucked into 'group think'. These guys (to include the one female!) have such diverse experiences that they bring so much to the table.

We have guys who are fluent in Arabic, Norwegian, and Pashtun. Officers who have not 'worn the uniform' in a long time because they are coming from being a Foreign Area Officer (Embassy/Diplomatic Assignment). Men who are coming from finishing their MS/Advanced degrees from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown.

These are not your average 'Joes'. These are a group of Professionals who are experts in their trades. The term 'Trades' does not mean killing people and breaking things. It means to apply their skill sets to accomplish a greater mission. If accomplishing our strategic mission by learning a language so we can better relate to a tribal leader, we will do it. If it means thinking of a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain- we will do it.

Several of the guys have come straight from 'Down Range' (meaning Iraq or Afghanistan) to ILE. They moved their families here over the Christmas Holidays, some went home and are here temporarily (still away from their families). That is sacrifice. However, their insights into our national interests from recent exposure is invaluable to all of us. These guys are the silent 'heros'- not looking for publicity.

All they want, along with us, is to improve their knowledge base so that when we are in positions of influence to make our profession, our Army and our society a little bit better than when we received it.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul is like Newt Gingrich (or even Al Gore)- extremely smart and their thoughts/stances cannot be boiled down to one 'sound bite'. Which is why most people like them do not make it this far in national politics.

This is the problem with our electorate- the collective 'we' want a flashy, make me feel good kind of candidate, or the 'empty suit'. Paul's ideas are outside of the 'mainstream' and is proud to not subscribe to 'group-think'. His definitions of 'Patriotism' and defeating an enemy is different than the others.

He supports the troops by defining what he means down deep- not just the rhetoric. Any politician that is worth their salt will tell you the good, bad and the ugly (Soc Sec benefits cannot be sustained, we need to cut X, Y and Z to balance the budget, etc)

The ill-informed electorate (majority of those that vote, unfortunately) is not smart enough to process this information- so they vote for the guy in the empty-suit with a flashy smile. Paul is not a flashy guy with a million-dollar smile. Personally, I am pleased to see that he is gaining some traction on the 'Libertarian' side of the GOP.

This is a similar problem the Judicial system has problems- a ignorant jury pool. The lawyers on either side want a group of lemmings who are easily swayed. Stupid. If you think and have a methodical mind and do not subscribe to 'group think'- you are disqualified. Maybe it is time to have a full-time jury! They are skilled at critical thinking, decision-making and seeing through the Bull that lawyers feed them.

An Opportunity not to be squandered

Intermediate Level Education, or ILE, is what Army Majors must complete to be eligible for promotion to LTC. Unless you are in one of those 'Special' Branches, like JAG, Chaplain or AMEDD (SB). Every officer must complete this course, whether in 'residence' or 'distance learning'. Some are unable to complete the residence course out of no fault of their own (deployment, health, family,etc). However, being selected for a resident class is a privilege that few receive. Especially as an officer in the Army Reserve.

I am a proud member of the AMEDD Regiment, as a Medical Specialist Corp. Seats for these classes are determined by a Selection Board convened each year at the Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox (AHRC). This board then issues a number of seats to each branch.

Why? They are SB for a reason. The Army does not necessarily pay those branches to command at higher levels of the Army or DoD. We pay them to be Doctors, Lawyers and Chaplains, not necessarily to be staffers. However, some in the SB will do this, and therefore a small, select number of seats are awarded to these branches. Each branch then convenes their boards for those that will be awarded a seat in this class.

Statistics for this year's ILE show that out of 37 AGR MS Officers boarded, only six were selected for Resident ILE this year. We learned that the Belvior Campus of ILE selects the top 50% of the Officers selected for Resident ILE (there are three other campuses that hold the resident course) due to its proximity to the National Capital Region (NCR). I was selected for the Belvoir ILE Course.

In group 30C, there are 16 of us. Every one of us has a Combat Patch. I am the only Reserve Component Officer. Two are West Point graduates. One Physician. One JAG Officer. One Special Forces Officer. Two Captains that will get promoted while they are here (that is an accomplishment as a CPT to be selected for ILE). Five of us are TDY, the others are stationed in the NCR.

It is a diverse group. A group that will challenge me with their depth and breadth of their experiences. A group that will push me to do my best and keep up. This is the first 'merit-based' school I have attended during my career, where the best are selected to come. I sometimes hardly believe that I was selected. I will not squander this opportunity.

Welcome to ILE Class 12-001 at beautiful Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It is home for the next fifteen weeks. Through the mountains, a foot of snow, closed highways, and much of it at ten MPH, I finally made it. It is not good to be away from home for 15 weeks, but being selected for Resident ILE is an opportunity not to be taken for granted.

Day One- signing in, inventorying books, and checking into lodging all accomplished. Meeting my classmates and those who will be my peers in the future will occur shortly.