By TOM RICKS
Editor’s note: The Long March will be closed for inventory the month of August. We regret any inconvenience this causes our loyal customers. In an effort to keep you reasonably content and focussed, we are offering re-runs of some of the best columns of the year. We value your custom and hope you will stick around for . . . the Long March. That’s the advice from retired Lt. Cols. John Nagl and Paul Yingling, who both have made post-Army careers in education. If you want to make a career in the Army, they counsel, just lay low. “If you want to advance, go along and get along: Attend the unit barbecue, laugh at the boss’s jokes and for God’s sake never write for publication.”
But if you insist on advocating change, they continue, be smart about it. Disguise it, for example. “ If you want to sell a new idea, make it seem old.”
Prepare to wage a campaign, not to fight battles. Make allies. Look for areas of agreement. Reach out to other sorts of venues. “As our insurgent enemies have taught us, tactical defeats are far less important than strategic vision and staying power.”
Altogether, a wise article verging on cynicism. Which is not a bad posture for a potential reformer to take.
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