Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

“Granularity and Fidelity for Effects-Based Targeting”

I just have to post this lovely response by “GE” to my post yesterday on pivoting the narrative. This guy clearly has spent too much time around defense intellectuals. I refuse to support ANY attempt to pivot the narrative unless the pivoter is willing to offer enough granularity and fidelity to truly allow the end-user ...

585216_090605_cones2.jpg
585216_090605_cones2.jpg

I just have to post this lovely response by “GE” to my post yesterday on pivoting the narrative. This guy clearly has spent too much time around defense intellectuals.

I refuse to support ANY attempt to pivot the narrative unless the pivoter is willing to offer enough granularity and fidelity to truly allow the end-user some insight on the effects-based targeting it will foster. Otherwise, we’re chasing our tail down a rabbit hole filled with self-licking ice cream cones.

We’re dealing with a large delta and a steep learning curve here, so we need to get comfortable being uncomfortable, recognizing that the only constant in this environment is…change.

I believe that Clausewitz once said that Sun-Tzu once said that victory in one thousand battles will be complete only when we have swallowed the dominant paradigm wholesale and then made sure that we’ve all boarded the bus to Abilene!”

I think I must have been at the same conference as this guy.

daiwilliamsuk/Flickr

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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