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Military incompetence
*** Shopping-Tip: 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.
*Rejection of information which challenges preconceptions.
*Overestimating the abilities of one's own side and underestimating those of the enemy.
*Indecisiveness and the inability to consider swift action, marked by a failure to exploit battlefield gains.
*Over-persistence.
*Frontal assaults and brute force over surprise, deception and/or
tactics tactical skill.
*In defeat, the search for
scapegoat scapegoats and the suppression of information.
*A belief in fate or luck rather than a rational assessment.
See also:
First Anglo-Afghan War;
Crimean War;
Indian Mutiny;
Boer Wars; most battles or campaigns in
World War I - notably
Battle of Verdun Verdun,
Passchendaele Ypres and the
Battle of the Somme (1916) Somme;
World War II -
Battle of Dunkirk Dunkirk,
Fall of France,
Attack on Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor,
Tobruk, Singapore,
Dieppe Raid Dieppe,
Operation Market Garden Arnhem;
Tet Offensive,
Dien Bien Phu, etc.
Further reading:
* '''N.F.Dixon''' - ''On the Psychology of Military Incompetence''
* '''Saul David''' - ''Military Blunders'' (1997)
