War, COVID and Battling the Enemy

The United States has gone to war on many occasions. The basis for the entry into the war varies dramatically from one war to another. WW II was Pearl Harbor, whereas Vietnam was Tonkin Gulf, a made up excuse by President Johnson. Lincoln’s election set off the Civil War whereas 911 set off the Afghan war. In contrast Iraq was a single minded attempt to overthrow a leader disliked by the sitting President. One can examine each of these wars and see their cause and results vary dramatically.

However what is true if that the President is the Commander in Chief and the President selects his military leaders to fight the war. The military leaders then have at their command a set of capabilities to be deployed. These capabilities include a set of staff functions:

1. Logistics: G4 in Army jargon. This is the collection, management, deployment, and maintenance of the tools of ear. Such logistics include fuel, weapons, food, infrastructure and the like. Troops cannot fight without food and bullets.

2. Intelligence: G2 in Army jargon. This function must ferret out what the enemy is doing, where, and with what. It must counterbalance all information regarding friendly forces as well.

3. Plans: This function prepare plans for possible scenarios using the knowledge of wharf resources are available and also of the enemy capabilities.

4. Staffing: This is the function of putting the right people in the right place.

5. Operations: This commend element focuses on current operations.

6. Communications: This is the essential function of making certain that all commands can communicate.

The above is but a brief summary. Then there are the troops who do the fighting under a common structure of generals or admirals. This structure may vary a bit but the staff elements are key to a successful battle, not just the capabilities and competence of the troops.

Another essential ingredient is the commander, the top military person. The President is not a military person, the President may be Commander in Chief but the President does not fight the battles. The President assigns the generals and admirals.

FDR, through the innate brilliance of Harry Hopkins, selected Admiral King and General Marshall. Then they selected Nimitz and Eisenhower. They were stuck with MacArthur, but they managed their way around this. The four individuals first noted were brilliant in the execution of a two Ocean war. In contrast Lincoln had McLellan, and let his incompetence last too long. Yet he did finally choose Grant who graciously defeated Lee and the other traitors who disavowed their oaths of loyalty.

In contrast, Johnson tried to micro manage Vietnam, the result is the greatest defeat the US has ever suffered. Bush got us into Iraq for reasons that lacked credibility. Wilson got us into WW I with a vision of creating world peace and a massive naivety regarding the European allies.

Needless to say we have had some good presidents and some less than good ones. They are humans so what else is new.

Now why this five cent history lesson? Simple, COVID is an enemy and we are at war. The President is Commander in Chief yet we have no military like structure to work with. We have incompetent individuals, gadflies, wannabe politicians, and a mass of people who have not a clue as to what needs to be done. We lack the staff functions above. Take logistics. We still cannot do massive testing. Why not? We do not have the overall general and that general lacks a Logistics Staff. It certainly is not the CDC. We lack Intelligence. We have no true idea of who is infected and when they were infected and who infected them. Testing is at best sparse and results are delays a week or more, and errors are rampant. We need a general for Intelligence as we need a general for Logistics. The list goes on.

The current President went to a military secondary school. One could assume that somewhere he had to learn about military staff functions. It is clear that none in the current amalgam of bumbling characters has a clue.

The solution is staring us in the face. Use the military paradigm. Have the staff organization one needs to win, than the troops, our nurses and physicians, can fight and win the battle. Keep the propagandists and nay sayers at bay. Unfortunately the battlefield generals are the Governors and they cannot be fired for incompetence. But one can see the McLellan, the Patton, the Grant, the Nimitz, the Halsey, the Bradley, the Sherman, the Eisenhower, and the MacArthur. We also have our Lee and other individuals who seek to overthrow.

But to successfully fight this war, and it is a war, we need not only troops in battle, again the nurses and doctors, but the staff forces to be certain they troops have what they need. The lack of this, in my opinion, is a gross failure in this current conflict.