Military planners in Iraq may soon be seeing 'red'

[Rose Siding]

A team of skeptics has joined fellow officers to ask tough questions in a war that has seen its share of missteps.

The U.S. military has sent to Iraq a five-person team of dedicated skeptics, known in military jargon as a "red team." In a war known for its missteps and unanticipated results, the team will be assigned to review, and question, military operations. It will attempt to predict how enemies will react to various missions and what the unintended consequences might be.

Such teams have been used on an ad-hoc basis to critique specific battle plans. But this team is the first to work full time as devil's advocates, and is the first headed by officers trained as designated skeptics by Ft. Leavenworth's University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies.
...
In Iraq, the new red team has begun working for Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who recently became commander of day-to-day military operations there. The team may also get a higher profile with the arrival of Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, named the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

...the red team course at Ft. Leavenworth includes instruction on how to criticize without being ignored. And in the field, Ragland's team is trying to figure out how to sugarcoat skepticism.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-redteam19jan19,0,1780205,full.story?coll=la-home-world

[Little Wing]

1. Bastard Squad has a nice ring to it

and I could carry the skepticsm of three men

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. can they teach Congress

how to criticize without being ignored? Or will bush fire the general who sent them over there?

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Full-time as devil's advocates...

Would that be Bush or Cheney?

[Demit]

4. Critical thinking, what a concept! And only a scant four years into the war.

I'm not blaming the military here, it was the war's civilian designers whose job it was four years ago, during their planning sessions, to anticipate different outcomes. The "we never anticipated (fill in disaster here)—!" people.

[Bushies gotta go]

5. wonderful.. a steady parade of people who chimp won't listen to.

[sweetheart]

6. hey, at least somebody will be right

The guys in charge will get all the black marks and these guys 'll get to be right and win like the enemy.

They'll probably win congressional medals of honour for prescient accuracy.

[damntexdem]

7. I wonder: couldn't they send one such team into ...

the Bushista Administration?