In the run up to Marine Gen. James Mattis' deployment to Iraq in 2004, a colleague wrote to him asking about the "importance of reading and military history for officers"...
The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience (or by your men’s experience), i.e. the hard way. By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.
Elites would like to think of the members of the US military as barely self-aware drones who are in service because they have no other options. The truth of the matter is very different. Today's military - especially the professional military - is largely middle-class, well-educated, and extremely capable.
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