Friday, April 25, 2003

Words of War
The Pentagon last week announced the end of major offensive operations in Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has already assigned the military to gather "lessons learned" from the conflict.

Here is a sampling of terms the military has used to describe the war, its planning, conduct and aftermath.

Catastrophic Success — In advance of the war, commanders prepared for a spectrum of possible outcomes, from prolonged combat to such a speedy collapse of the regime that it presented a new host of problems.

The concept of "catastrophic success" was summed up by Mr. Rumsfeld after Baghdad fell in just three weeks: "We did, however, recognize that there was at least a chance of catastrophic success, if you will, to reverse the phrase, that you could in a given place or places have a victory that occurred well before reasonable people might have expected it, and that we needed to be ready for that. We needed to be ready with medicine, with food, with water."

After-Action Review — All bureaucracies engage in post-mortems to analyze successes and shortcomings of a mission, enterprise or deal just completed. For the military, it is the After-Action Review. This formalized process does not truly end until the lessons learned are incorporated and change the behavior of the armed services.

The Pentagon has a related but speedier process for actions on a much smaller scale. In advance of Congressional testimony or a public briefing, civilian officials and military officers subject themselves to a tough preparatory grilling by colleagues, called a "murder board." And just after the testimony or briefing, the quick recap of how things went is called a "hot wash."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/weekinreview/20BOXB.html

No comments:

Post a Comment

con·cept