General Petraeus at Harvard

[AZZenny]

On April 21, 2009, he spoke on leadership, lessons learned from Iraq, and how they will and won't apply to Afghanistan. The video is long -- it gets relevant around 9 minutes in -- but very worthwhile.

http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Multimedia-Center/All-Videos/21st-Century-Leadership-Lessons-from-the-U.S.-Military

He has a great quote he said he swiped from a command post door:
"In the absence of orders, figure out what they should have been, and execute aggressively." he said they put that in the newest edition of the Counter-insurgency Manual.

[5./FjgBtl610]

...
"In the absence of orders, figure out what they should have been, and execute aggressively." ...
Nice one and very true
Frank

[tecumseh11]

Rommel paraphrase.

[Gungnir]

"In the absence of orders, figure out what they should have been, and execute aggressively."



-Be prepared to do a CONOP before you 'execute aggressively'

-Be prepared to brief your CONOP to your next higher... wait for approval before you 'execute aggressively'

-Be prepared for your next higher to brief the CONOP to the next higher... wait for approval before you 'execute aggressively'

-Be prepared for JAG to conduct a 15-6 after you 'execute aggressively'

-Depending on your unit... be prepared for the next higher to leave you hanging in order to save their own skin

-Be prepared to have your name tarnished and face plastered all over the news, internet, etc. after you 'execute aggressively'

Welcome to the new military... In this period... leaders are afraid, mostly due to social and political implications, that they cannot execute aggressively or as freely as in previous wars.