Gen H.R. McMaster - Assumptions and Biases: The Foundations of Flawed Strategies Ch.1 | HISPBC

Gen. H.R. McMaster emphasizes the need for policymakers to develop broad, long-term strategies that draw from the lessons of history and warns against the flawed assumptions, groupthink, and contrived consensus that have often led to strategic failures in American foreign policy.

[@ShanRizvi]

General McMaster is one of the wisest minds in America. This is the type of thinking his country needs.

[@richardbryanesq]

I watched very carefully and didn't hear the General say anything extraordinarily enlightening. An interesting presentation, but nothing new.

[@kinngrimm]

Exactly when offered an exit from the Trump administration he took it. One of the most valuable qualities of a general is to know when to retreat and not loose anything to the enemy while doing so.

[@jeffheiner]

Thanks for making me realize my strategies are flawed!!!! Dang it !!!! I reflect upon my flawed strategies LOL.

[@linmal2242]

'A lack of strategic competance' ! That says it all about 'strategic withdrawl'' from Afghanistan. Or going in, in the first place !

[@kevinjenner9502]

The “Afghanistan Papers”. 20 years of public lies / 20 years of private truths

[@kinngrimm]

If i am not mistaken, the US went there because of Osama Bin Laden, who wasn't in Iraq, neither were the WMDs. In the end he wasn't in Afghanistan either ^^. Masterfully done by Trump to blame Biden for that desaster of a retreat, while Trump himself in his last days in office actually gave the order. I think this was the only time were i actually thought that man had a brain.

[@user-yi1qp1ch7s]

This is much better than the sugar-coating yesman McMaster i usually heard in other Hoover sessions. Still, to view the problem in others' perspective, to share the writing of future other sides etc. does that mean we can view NATO expansion in Russian perspective, or view the Gaza conflict in Arab perspective ?

[@pinkbike0217]

❤

[@dirtunderMYFEET]

Would it maybe helpful for all of us to realize there are things we civilians don’t know, what it takes every minute of every hour today to protect us? It’s complicated. I’m an ethics of applied intelligence analyst, so these questions have significant meaning to me too. But what we don’t know is colossal. Listen to these men. They are no fools, they value objectively and rigorous, respectful discussion. Pretty damn rare. And by the way, they are all still actively engaged in trying to help these hard, complicated things currently in motion all over the world. So, I humbly ask you to show the proper respect for honorable people like this. Thank you.

[@user-lp3dk4bp8j]

✅

[@pinkbike0217]

💚💖❤️

[@user-lp3dk4bp8j]

Biden must go

[@kinngrimm]

I always enjoy coming back to these conservativ think tanks and their presentations. With traditionalism and conservatism it is quite like Einstein said. Repeating the same modus operandi again and again while expecting another outcome. Always reliable like a rubber band going back into these old habits and stances. Ok not always, sometimes they snap and then something like Trump and his cult comes along. I do have some conservativ views on some topics, but never would i dream about making a political party from such and yet all democracies have them equally to progressives. Tbh i don't think party systems are the way forward for democracies. A form of direct democracy solely around issues being pushed upwards by voting and also being able to participate from local to regional to provincial to regional to national to international, without any emphasis on the person or party. Maybe A(G)I will help us with that.

[@cubansoy]

Assuming politicians are working in our interest...

[@kinngrimm]

The failure is not just with the politicians, but also those who vote for them by not concentrating and demanding to concentrate on the issues but rather the politicians themselves. I maybe mistaken, but isn't that what you call in the US identity politics or is that different? From what i have seen in the US this has become a spectable far worse than in most other democracies.

[@neilreynolds3858]

I got to 2:40. I assume that he's going to be questioning assumptions but he's already spouting his own assumptions and they're wrong. It didn't take very long before he quit making sense.

[@sebucwerd]

why is the barron harkonnen giving a talk?

[@glennmitchell9107]

Who is the audience for these talks, baby bureaucrats who will be proposing policy alternatives when they grow up or baby politicians who will be making policy decisions when they get elected?

[@royalirishranger1931]

This guy was one of the Architects of the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. This not a great commander or grand Chief, this is waffle and failure.

[@user-bt8vn3dj6o]

Not true. You might want to study the subject. Our military leaders answer to their political masters.

[@oceantree5000]

You’ve got that completely wrong.

[@richardbryanesq]

There's truth to what you say, and then much which needs to be debated. One problem with the Hoover Institute presentations is the speakers or panels are always on the same side patting each other on the back for being so erudite; there's never anyone educated on the subject to push back and asked pointed questions. At one point (in another video) McMaster laments about our "humiliating surrender to the Taliban." That's got to be openly debated by military and political leaders who actually understand what was happening on the ground, as well as globally.

[@kevinjenner9502]

The decision to Invade Iraq was made well in advance, with Intel being fixed around the decision. The White House Iraq Group, led by Karl Rove, was tasked with acclimating the American public to the predetermined decision to invade.

[@kinngrimm]

@@user-bt8vn3dj6o Well as "adult in the room" he sure did not last long in the Trump regime. So was it Trumps failure to fire him as he is such a great leader or his failure to not approach Trump more subservient by not repeating the findings of the security service that the 2016 election was clearly manipulated by russia?

[@kevinrung4178]

McMaster speaks so fast. It's an indication that you should not really have to understand the claptrap that comes out of his mouth. He fundamentally misunderstands political reality while talking strategic thinking. This is a problem endemic to our General Staff today as much as it was to some of the great mistaken minds of military men in the past. (E.g., the French General Staff of the late 1930s). This is the great example he gives to students? The failure of The Case of the Afghan War withdrawal? Our U.S. General staff were left supposedly completely unawares even after listening to three successive U.S. Presid 14:24 ents telling the military very directly, over more than 7-years that they needed to withdraw asap. So that may have been a poor political strategy, but at least it was consistent over several administrations! (It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to unlock this mystery.) So, the lesson is not strategic, as McMaster suggests. It is operational. It's a pure case of poor implementation of a withdrawal, in spite of a huge advance notice. But, McMaster is unwilling to teach this lesson, which should be a blinding glimpse of the obvious. He must be listening to too many postmodern philosophers to come up with such fast talking, critical theory manure that is so well footnoted by so many great minds, cited out of context. I'm anything but nonplussed about this session.

[@effexon]

baffles me how they had to just watch when taliban was slaughtering civilians there... and that was political call for years. Since 9/11 there was no strategy. Biggest common factor nowadays seems that politicians deliberate wait things to escalate and cause harm so they can show up as "problem solvers".

[@carlslagle8399]

That's an interesting idea. Fast talkers speak claptrap. Heretofore, I thought the meaning of the words, not the speed at which they were delivered, determined their value. But, if true, this could be a very useful tool. We could easily decide who to listen to, who to believe or not believe, simply by measuring the speed of their speech. Fast equals claptrap so slow must equal not-claptrap. Ah, but that leads to a dilemma. How fast is fast? Where is the dividing line? Is 100 words per minute slow but 101 words per minute is fast? I suppose this idea needs some more research. For the record, I typed this reply very slowly in order for it to be claptrap free!

[@kinngrimm]

Excelent points. I was wondering anyways why he choose that withdrawl as topic as it was the administration he was part of for a while, who initiated it. Still it is easy to attach military blunders to a certain administration, while the fault is with the military, the final responsibility ofcause goes to the administration at that time in office. Yet during Trumps reign, it was reported that Trump gave the military in the middle east card blanch and i was rather possitivly surprised that right there did not end in WW3.