Military incompetence
Military incompetence refers to failures of members of the military.
Often, some of the following factors can contribute to these failures:
- A conservative and traditional attitude, often marked by the misuse or rejection of newer technology and the inability to learn from experience.\n*Rejection of information which challenges preconceptions.\n*Overestimating the abilities of one's own side and underestimating those of the enemy.\n*Indecisiveness and the inability to consider swift action, marked by a failure to exploit battlefield gains.\n*Over-persistence.\n*Frontal assaults and brute force over surprise, deception and/or tactical skill.\n*In defeat, the search for scapegoats and the suppression of information.\n*A belief in fate or luck rather than a rational assessment.
See also:
First Anglo-Afghan War;
Crimean War;
Indian Mutiny;
Boer War; most battles or campaigns in
World War I - notably
Verdun,
Ypres and the
Somme;
World War II -
Dunkirk,
Pearl Harbor,
Tobruk, Singapore,
Dieppe,
Arnhem;
Tet Offensive, etc.
Further reading:
\n* N.F.Dixon - On the Psychology of Military Incompetence\n* Saul David - Military Blunders (1997)