What does an Ivy League trained Commander in Chief with his Ivy Leaue trained staff mean when they describe their strategy with the words "lean", "agile", flexible" and reliant on "innovation"?
Of course, those buzzwords mean only one thing to an Ivy Leaguer: headcount reduction.
David Hallsted says
I see. We are trying hard to make friends.
Bill Waddell says
Actually David I have little interest in making friends among folks who hide behind the language and high principles of lean, agility and flexibility to mask a simple minded headcount reduction in the Army and Marine Corps – be they Harvard educated McKinsey consultants or Presidents. The man should say what he means and mean what he says if he wants to command respect. You will notice that I don’t have much difficulty making my position quite clear – I can’t see why Obama and the eductaed elite can’t do the same.
Pete says
Bill, I’m convinced that politicians learn very early and quickly to mislead, misdirect and outright lie about what their intentions are. We very much need to reform our system, but the people who will start that process are the ones in office now. Even at the state convention level we have politicians in control. Hence we are left with “Occupy” movements which aren’t clear about what they are protesting either.
A recommended read is American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard.
My conclusion: We have the best government money can buy!
Bill Waddell says
Or as Henry Kissinger said, Pete, “90% of the politicians are making the rest of them look bad.”
Mark Welch says
Bill… Are you saying a “headcount reduction” (whatever term people want to use) in this case is not right? Or is your point more that these officials don’t know what lean is and are misusing the terms. If it’s the latter, well, that’s clear.
If it’s the former, then my thoughts are that if soldiers no longer have wars to fight, why should their levels be kept at a level suited to fighting wars? If we had car factories that had no demand from their customers, would we continue to employ people in them?
Pete says
Bill, excellent quote from Kissinger! Looked it up on BrainyQuote and their wording is slightly different: “Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.” Close enough for me!
Chris says
So to fix our deficit problem, we are going to start dumping more people into the unemployment lines… Why does it sound like that won’t work? I think we could keep them on the books and put them to work securing our borders, ports, etc.
Mark Graban says
Ugh, now President Obama is talking more about “leaner government”:
http://news.yahoo.com/r-p-department-commerce-president-obama-seeks-consolidate-164824731–abc-news.html