REVIEW OF MARGIN TO VICTORY by Col Douglas Macgregor

Published on November 20, 2016
 Carrie Devorah

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/review-margin-victory-col-douglas-macgregor-carrie-devorah?published=t 

MARGIN TO VICTORY: FIVE BATTLES THAT CHANGED THE FACE OF MODERN WAR

Author: Cal. Douglas Macgregor, Retired 
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Reviewing a book is like opening your prize in a raffle contest. You are holding ticket. You just don’t know what is inside the wrapped cover until you crack the book’s spine, open the book and begin to read. When that book is about the author’s selection of the five battles that changed the face of modern war”, it is unanticipated the book will be a straight read from coffee shop to coffee shop. Inside the Beltway, that is how things get done.

By surprise, a key element.

Col. Douglas Macgregor, retired, sat down to pen his book affirming lessons are learned from the past. After all, Macgregor says, America is under the global microscope of its competitors when it comes to organizing and equipping forces.

Col. Macgregor has a University of Virginia degree in International relations. The author of five books Macgregor set up a defense and foreign policy consulting firm in what insiders called NoVa, Northern Virginia, close enough to the movers and shakers yet far enough away to maintain distance and not break the budget.

West Pointer Macgregor researched deeply in to the last centuries major battles of Mons, 1914, Shanghai 1937, Belorussia 1944, Suez 1973 and Iraq, 1991 focused these clashes show restructuring the American military is core to “what it takes to fight and win” according to Lt. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger USA, Retired.

The days of WWI and WWII are gone in a cyber security world. Rules of engagement are changed when a flash drive is the tool of deception, carrying secrets of the door, not one document at a time, more, undetermined war. The margin of victory is changed beyond bad policies, failed tactics and dysfunctional command structures. Macgregor puts forth proposing replacing old leaders with new concepts, new strategic concepts that can be operational, new questions being asked. 

Leadership must be on board, writes Macgregor or the “margin of victory” will be lost by failed strategy leaders won’t let go of. Macgregor provides the example of Sir Richard Haldane as an example of world stage leaders seeing this military leadership strategy as pattern. There are better solutions, Macgregor writes. 

The appeal of “Margin of Victory” is beyond the obvious military market. Macgregor’s thoroughness to detail allows the dates of events to be woven in to timelines providing an eye in to progression of the world, evolving in to our world situation today.

One could read the year 1914 in relation to the Battle of Mons. Time-lining that date in to a technological trail shows what is often not seen, that the world moves on parallel paths. Technology was evolving as WW1 was being fought, during the time the Nazis were using scientists and academics in the Nazi grand plan of a New World Order.

One day’s enemies can become the next days friend. Conversely, one days friend, Russia, to whom a country, to whom Roosevelt gave arms access in a 5 year lend-lease can become an enemy, as it is portrayed in news stories.

Who could have thought to consider, picking up “Margin To Victory,” a history lesson Macgregor teaches, beyond the battles of Mons, Shanghai, Belorussia, Suez and Iraq, is military practice to ‘hold your friends close and your enemies closer’ a practice of America’s military over the century, repeatedly, over and over again as did America with its “lend to lease” program.

Keep your eye on the prize. Read at one’s own pace, with an eye on history Macgregor provides, detailing moments the average man and woman would not otherwise read. History does have a way of repeating itself, WWI, WWII…. hopefully not WWIII.

Commentary: Russia Isn’t Actually That Happy About Trump’s Victory

Commentary: 

The author implies obliquely that Washington has far more to gain from ending the unnatural and unnecessary hostility to China, an American economic partner with the potential to contribute to U.S., as well as, global economic prosperity and growth. In contrast to China, Russia is a socio-economic basket case. In economic terms, Russia is Spain with nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, in contrast to Spain, Moscow insists on strategic interests and aspirations in Europe and NE Asia vis-à-vis Japan that are consistent with what the author describes in the article below. For Moscow, these interests are, for the moment, non-negotiable.  This does not necessitate conflict with Moscow, but these interests demand that we remain strong and wait until Moscow’s attitudes change. For social, economic and demographic reasons, Moscow’s long-term strategic interests in connection with both Central Europe and Japan will eventually change.

Only in the Middle East can Washington profit from de facto cooperation with Moscow. Washington can profit from leaving the on-going regional conflict to the Russians. That’s right—America should pull its forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan. We should adopt Israel’s attitude, “When your enemies are killing each other, don’t interrupt.”

In the absence of the American military presence in Iraq and AFPAK, the Sunni Islamists/Jihadists will turn their attention to Russia. They will literally stream by the tens of thousands into the Caucasus and Central Asia. We know this from their public statements and from the thousands of Turkic recruits in ISIS and AQ. From a Western Perspective, this would be a very positive development. A glance at Russia’s 300 year war with the Muslim Turks in the Caucasus is informative. The good news is that the Russians have fewer restrictions when it comes to killing Muslim Turks, Tatars and Arabs than we do. In addition, Russia is allied with both India and Iran in this unending war with Sunni Islamist Turks, Tatars and Arabs. We are not, nor should we be.

However, the author fails to point out that in in Moscow and Berlin, German and Russian elites share the opinion that the disastrous 20^th Century Wars between Germans and Russians were self-defeating for both sides. For all but 9 of the last 250 years, the elites in Berlin and Russia were generally aligned, not only militarily, but economically.  We must keep this point in mind as we attempt to persuade the Germans to rearm and contribute to their security, as well as, to Central-East and Northern Europe’s security. 

In the Balkans, however, Moscow is the de facto landlord. Given Muslim Turkish aspirations and behavior, we should accept this reality. After all, the Serbs, Greeks and other Orthodox Christians have already done so.

Doug Macgregor

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/opinion/russia-isnt-actually-that-happy-about-trumps-victory.html?_r=1

Russia Isn’t Actually That Happy About Trump’s Victory

By RUSLAN PUKHOV•NOV. 11, 2016

Ruslan Pukhov is a defense analyst and the director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a think tank based in Moscow.

MOSCOW — Donald J. Trump’s shocking triumph in the American presidential election will have some unusual foreign-policy repercussions. During the campaign, Democrats frequently tried to damage Mr. Trump’s standing by claiming that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was working for and supporting the Republican nominee. Now many may believe that America’s huge political upset could even be described as a victory for the Kremlin.

In fact, the idea peddled by American news media that Mr. Putin supports Mr. Trump is far removed from reality. Proponents of this idea have blithely ignored the assessments in mainstream Russian news media and by Russian analysts, which have never been particularly enthusiastic about Mr. Trump.

There is a lot of concern in Russia about what will happen to American foreign policy once Mr. Trump is inaugurated.

The main problem with Mr. Trump is that no one — including the president-elect himself — seems to know what he will do as president, especially in the area of foreign policy. His statements on foreign relations so far have been confusing and, at times, contradictory. His aides and advisers also appear to have a broad range of conflicting views on America’s foreign and defense policy.

What is more, Mr. Trump will have to find an accommodation with the Republican Party establishment. His administration’s foreign-policy and defense appointments may well become a bargaining chip in that difficult process. As a result, some very unexpected figures, including outspoken hawks, may be put at the helm of the State Department and the Pentagon. Mr. Trump’s own apparent preference is to focus on domestic matters, especially the economy, so he may yet delegate foreign policy and defense to the established Republican elite, which is clearly hostile to Russia.

Considering all of this, no one in the Kremlin, where people closely follow American politics and intelligence reports, would seriously consider betting on Mr. Trump.

Unlike much of the American and international news media, Russian analysts and commentators have never underestimated Mr. Trump. Even though he was sometimes compared to Vladimir Zhironovsky, a flamboyant and outspoken Russian populist, Mr. Trump was more often viewed as a strong and charismatic right-of-center leader. Some Russian commentators even reckon he may more resemble Ronald Reagan — a successful president pursuing a tough unilateral line on foreign and domestic policy.

In the longer term, however, Moscow can take comfort from some trends in American politics that have been put into stark relief throughout 2016. On foreign policy, both Mr. Trump’s campaign and Bernie Sanders’s Democratic primary bid highlighted a renewed American proclivity toward isolationism. Large segments of the American public are tired of endless military campaigns in the Middle East, and weary of the burden of America’s foreign commitments.

Even more important, it has become clear over the past two decades that globalization has not been such an unalloyed boon for the United States as some wish to portray it. In fact, it is the industrial heartland of America that has borne the brunt of the displacement caused by the breakneck globalization advocated by the Washington elite.

The key question now is whether America’s nascent isolationism will translate into policy. Even if it does, it won’t happen soon. The American political elite remains almost universally interventionist and supportive of globalization.

In the meantime, as Russia tries to figure out what to expect from the Trump presidency, it has very little reason to hope that the new president will offer any major concessions or strike any major deals with Moscow, regardless of what he said during the campaign. And Moscow has very little to offer to Washington at the moment. There are few areas for possible cooperation. Even if Mr. Trump does want to improve relations with Russia, he will find out when he moves into the Oval Office that the United States has little to gain from such an improvement.

This is why there is no reason to expect — either now, or in the foreseeable future — that America and Russia will strike some grand deal to divide the world into spheres of influence. Even more modest compromises seem unlikely. The Trump administration will have no incentive to make overtures to Moscow, such as taking a softer stance on Ukraine or easing the sanctions on Russia. Besides, for Mr. Trump any softening toward Russia would face opposition from within the Republican Party and in the American foreign policy and defense communities. The new president is unlikely to be willing to pay the steep domestic political price, especially since improving relations offers no tangible benefits to America.

The basic problems in Russian-American relations stem from Moscow’s fundamental aspiration to return to the global arena as a great power, and even to contemplate integration into the American-led, pro-Western world order only on the condition of being recognized as a great power that dominates most of its former Soviet neighbors. These Russian aspirations will remain unacceptable to any American administration for years, if not decades, to come.

There’s only one way this could change, though it is a scenario that many Americans may find uncomfortable to contemplate.

In the event of further major deterioration of America’s positions in the global arena — for example, if the United States is dragged into a confrontation with China while remaining mired in the Middle East — Russia may look like a more appealing ally, or at least a less appealing adversary. A confrontation with China, and other foreign-policy complications, might force Washington to seek a rapprochement with Russia, in the same way that rivalry with Germany had once forced the British Empire to put aside its longstanding differences with Russia and sign a pact in 1907. But for this scenario to come to pass, Moscow will have to remain firm and unyielding for as long as it takes.

U.S. Army FUTURE: Puma Force RSGs!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-vB4QCl8a8&feature=youtu.be

Information Briefing......FY 17 National Defense Authorization Bill

Information Briefing 

on the 

Reconnaissance Strike Group 

as stipulated in the 

FY 17 National Defense Authorization Bill

douglasmacgregor.com/rsggeneralpublic.pdf

STATEMENT TO THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON THE FUTURE OF THE ARMY

The Reconnaissance-Strike Group Proposal
By Douglas Macgregor, EVP, BMG LLC
Taylor Building, 2530 Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA
18 November 2015

The current defense budget is the latest in a series of projected spending plans by the U.S. Army and its sister services to re-equip the Cold War Organization for Combat with new versions of equipment and weapons the force already fields. At the same time, the U.S. Army’s high-profile, multibillion-dollar acquisitions graveyard continues to grow with recently canceled programs such as the Ground Combat Vehicle, Armed Aerial Scout, and the sprawling 20 Billion Dollar Future Combat System.[1] In spite of these acquisition failures, it is “business as usual” inside the U.S. Army; an army in which the senior leadership insists the readiness of Army combat forces to deploy and fight is at historically low levels.[2] It is against this backdrop of the Army’s inability to provide ready, deployable combat power and sustainable modernization programs that the RSG proposal must be viewed.

What is the RSG? The Reconnaissance Strike Group (RSG) is a fundamental departure from “business as usual” in Army force development and acquisition. The RSG is about innovation, not invention. Instead of replacing systems inside the Army’s existing organization for combat, the RSG involves full spectrum rapid prototyping of the operational capability—organizing construct, human capital strategy and equipment—not just the technology. As a prototype formation it is designed to explore new capabilities with smaller inventories of new systems before larger, Army-wide, investments are made.

How is the RSG organized? The 5,500 man RSG is a new fighting formation with (4) Maneuver battalions, (1) Strike Battalion, (1) ISR Battalion and (1) Sustainment Battalion. The RSG is commanded by a Brigadier General with a Colonel as Chief of staff and Lieutenant Colonels in primary staff positions. The RSG’s C2 structure consolidates more combat power under fewer headquarters allowing it to respond directly to a Joint Task Force (TF).

The RSG is designed from the bottom up around Maneuver (mobile armored firepower for positional advantage), Strike (Stand-off Attack Systems), ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) and Sustainment (logistics).[3] Adding maneuver and sustainment to the ISR-strike framework that already exists in the aerospace and maritime forces is a vital step in the evolution of warfare.[4] It is the key to the integration of capabilities across Service lines in joint, integrated combat operations. As a One Star-commanded force package, the RSG complements the capabilities of the One-Star force packages that reside in the other services (Carrier Battle Group-CVBG/Air Expeditionary Force-AEF/Marine Expeditionary Brigade-MEB).

Because of the increasingly accurate delivery of munitions (including thermobaric warheads) from proliferating rocket artillery systems dense, static combat formations in land warfare are at high risk of destruction.[5] The RSG copes with this environment through the use of its organic and Joint ISR and Strike capabilities to detect, monitor, track and destroy enemies inside a 360 degree battlespace while the RSG’s dispersed; mobile maneuver elements position to wipe out the opposing force with direct fire and stand-off attack systems. In addition, the RSG’s ISR-Strike systems not only afford protection to the RSG’s maneuver elements, these systems also magnify the striking power of America’s Aerospace and Maritime Forces.

How is the RSG equipped? The RSG utilizes the best, off-the-shelf, state-of-the-art weapon systems to mitigate risk, save money and speed up delivery of new systems to Army Forces. Weapon systems are mounted on a common chassis, the German PUMA, the world’s best infantry fighting vehicle. The Puma’s 1003 horsepower engine, high power to weight ratio, modular armor plus superior suspension performance allows the mounting of larger weapon systems creating multi-weapon variants on a single Puma chassis. This represents a capability that cannot be achieved with other existing platforms. Moreover, the common chassis is not only a huge logistics force multiplier inside the RSG, the common chassis promises more combat power at lower procurement and life cycle costs.

Consequently, the RSG has significantly more firepower, mobility and protection than any existing Brigade Combat Team. The RSG can bypass or punch through all types of enemy resistance to encircle and destroy sub-national groups or nation-state forces. Most important, the RSG can take hits and keep fighting.

Summary. The RSG provides significantly more combat power per metric ton, flattens command and control (C2), and enables Army Formations to plug into Joint Commands without reliance on intervening, large, vulnerable Division/Corps HQTRS. For these reasons, the RSG should be viewed as the vanguard for future Army contributions to Joint Warfighting Operations; structured for flexible mission sets and tight integration with aerospace and maritime power.

These points notwithstanding, only the President and Congress can create the funding path for the RSG. The Army cannot be expected to reform itself. Like many corporations in a volatile, rapidly changing marketplace, the U.S. Army cannot get out of its own way.[6] One for one replacement of equipment within the same force structure is not the answer for the future. Doing so puts the nation at risk in future wars against formidable adversaries who have been studying our operations for decades.

[1] Joe Gould, “McHugh: Army Acquisitions’ Tale of Failure,” Defense News, 19 March 2015.
[2] Michelle Tan, “Army Readiness at Historically Low Levels,” Army Times, 12 March 2015, p. 1.
[3] 45% of the RSG structure is organic support. Organic support inside the BCT is 30% making it dependent on the division support command for its sustainment. 55% of the Army Division consists of support troops. RSG integrates more sustainment troops (2,426 Soldiers) than an entire Brigade Support BN (1,357 Soldiers).
[4] Lt Gen (ret) David Deptula, USAF, Statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee, “Revisiting the Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces,” 5 Nov, 2015, pp. 15-16.
[5] Sydney Freedberg, “Ukraine: Sneed Preview of WW III?” Breaking Defense, 13 July 2015, p. 1.
[6] Frances Hesselbein, My Life in Leadership: The Journey and Lessons Learned Along the Way, (San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass, 2011), p. 135.

Fiscal Reality and the American Way of War

What is the strategic meaning of America’s military drawdown? In this article, Macgregor explains the rationale for a reduced footprint overseas and the resulting demand for “high lethality/low density forces” in American military power.

http://douglasmacgregor.com/fiscalreality.pdf