MILITARY - U.S. Generals Not Prepared for Battle

"Today's Generals Are Well-Trained, But Ill-Prepared for Battle" PBS Newshour 12/4/2012

Excerpt

SUMMARY: During World War II, only 10 percent of trained generals were approved for active duty. Now, journalist Tom Ricks says, "Mediocrity is an accepted core value in the performance of generals." Ray Suarez talks to Ricks about his new book, "The Generals," which examines the history of U.S. military commanders.

Significant excerpt

THOMAS RICKS, author of "The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today": Well, George Marshall's during World War II when he was chief of staff of the Army was that generalship is one of the hardest things there is in the world to do.

You have to be intellectually and physically engaged, and there's enormous stress. And it burns people out. So, his attitude was a good number of people are simply going to fail at it.

This is not Lake Wobegon, where everybody is above average. And so, during World War II, 155 men commanded Army divisions in combat. Of those 155, 16 were relieved for combat ineffectiveness.

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): That's about 10 percent.

THOMAS RICKS: Yes. Compare it to today, when nobody gets fired for anything and mediocrity is an accepted core value in the performance of generals.