Learn from Sweden. Eh?
The Swedish word for military intelligence is
underrättelser.
The literal translation of
underrättelser
is “correction from below“.
The Swedish captain in the Fourth Generation War seminar I lead at for the U.S. Marine Corps at Quantico, Va. recently introduced me to (a new) word. It is the Swedish word for military intelligence: underrättelser. The literal translation of underrättelser is “correction from below“.
“What a remarkably instructive term for military intelligence! The more I have thought about it, the more “correction from below” has seemed to capture the essence of what good military intelligence requires — and what American military intelligence too often lacks.
Regrettably, in this Second Generation War model, the garbage cannot be acknowledged as such. The motto is, “Garbage In, Gospel Out.”
We could, of course, learn from the Swedes and make “correction from below” definitional to our intelligence process, just as we could learn from the Germans and adopt mission order tactics instead of issuing detailed, controlling orders.
But when you are the self-proclaimed “greatest military in all of history,” why should you learn from anyone else? Just as blindness leads to hubris, so hubris leads inevitably to blindness.
Very interesting article. Usually I save structural military pieces for the weekend. Thought I’d drop this one into the hopper on Friday morning for anyone up to clicking the link — and reflecting upon the questions asked by Lind.
Posted: Fri - March 2, 2007 at 07:58 AM