Looking back on the troubled wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many observers are content to lay blame on the Bush administration. But inept leadership by American generals was also responsible for the failure of those wars. A culture of mediocrity has taken hold within the Army’s leadership rank—if it is not uprooted, the country’s next war is unlikely to unfold any better than the last two.

I think this story should be translated into Arabic, Pashtun, and Urdu, printed in every newspaper and given to every pissed off village/district headman in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Agreed. What an eye opener.

Fantastic article, thanks for sharing.

At the lower levels why were field grade officers not fired enough too?

That same mentality filtered its way down. A percentage of officers still fired poor performers while the rest did not. Either it was a cross to bear or perhaps the chance of getting a replacement was low having someone bad is better than no one? I am not sure, but I can share more in person.

Is this not happening at the NCO-level in some sense? The best NCOs retiring after multiple combat tours...