Nagl to Leave Army
High-Profile Officer Nagl to Leave Army, Join Think Tank – Tom Ricks, Washington Post
“One of the Army’s most prominent younger officers, whose writings have influenced the conduct of the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq, said he has decided to leave the service to study strategic issues full time at a new Washington think tank.”
“Lt. Col. John Nagl, 41, is a co-author of the Army’s new manual on counterinsurgency operations, which has been used heavily by U.S. forces carrying out the strategy of moving off big bases, living among the population and making the protection of civilians their top priority.”
“A Rhodes Scholar, Nagl first achieved prominence for his Oxford University doctoral dissertation, which was published in 2002 as a book titled “Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons From Malaya and Vietnam.” The introduction to a recent edition of the book was written by Gen. Peter Schoomaker, at the time the Army’s chief of staff…”
LTC Nagl will be joining the staff at the Center for a New American Security.
More:
Abu Muqawama here, weighing in on this issue between sessions of a conference he’s attending. On the one hand, it’s easy to see Nagl’s retirement as yet another scrap of evidence pointing toward both an Army going down the drain and the best and brightest packing up and leaving the service. On the other hand, though, a guy like John Nagl — friend and mentor to both of your humble bloggers — has been swamped with great opportunities outside the Army for some time now. He’s more of a rock star in DC policy circles — and among Daily Show viewers — than he is in the active duty military. So is it a loss for the Army? Yes. T.X. (Hammes) is correct. But might John Nagl better serve the country in a position outside the military? Abu Muqawama certainly thinks so. So this isn’t a “bad news” story. The U.S. Army could have better used and supported John Nagl, sure, but if he winds up as an Assistant Secretary of Defense in a few years, he’ll be in a better position to affect policy and “fight” the good fight there than he would on some J staff in the Pentagon. Now if we can only rope Nagl into a guest spot on abumuqawama.com…
The Army is poorer for his loss. Nagl is one of this country’s leading soldier-scholars. He was a likely candidate for general’s stars and high command, because he had a rare combination of brilliant intellect and operational excellence as a commander. He was also one of the Army’s best public intellectuals…
However, I have every confidence that Lt. Col. Nagl will continue to serve in his new role, and continue his push for change from the outside. As he told the Post: “It’s not the strain of repeated deployments,” he said, but “a belief that I can contribute perhaps on a different level — and my family wants me to leave.” I respect him for listening to his family, and look forward to the contribution that Mister Nagl can make in his next career.
The Army’s loss. But insofar as the Centre for New American Security is a think-tank with the purpose of aligning talent with major policy positions should we have a Democratic presidency perhaps the nation’s gain. Nagl’s a huge figure in the COIN field. No doubt the blogosphere will be abuzz about his contributions past and future. Here’s one that maybe you’ll not hear elsewhere. Nagl’s Law (as conveyed to me somewhat drunkenly in the bar of Cumberland Lodge outside Windsor): when you are drinking with friends and are speaking positively of one who is absent pick up your phone, call and say ‘hey we’re having a great time wish you were here.’ There you go. John Nagl, COIN guru (which you knew); and really great guy (which maybe you didn’t). Good luck John!
… This continues a trend–the best and brightest, especially those associated with formulating the Army’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual–are either being passed over for promotion (as Colonel H.R. McMaster was) or simply leaving for a variety of reasons that almost always add up to frustration with a bureacracy still controlled by the unsuccessful and the unimaginative…
The early retirement of a lieutenant colonel ordinarily wouldn’t merit the slightest mention. But today’s news that Lt. Col. John Nagl is leaving the Army is a big deal.
It’s another sign, more alarming than most, that the U.S. military is losing its allure for a growing number of its most creative young officers. More than that, it’s a sign that one of the Army’s most farsighted reforms—a program that some senior officials regard as essential—may be on the verge of getting whacked…
… Petraeus, as is obvious, has been greeted as a savior by politicians of both parties. The striking thing that Nagl’s resignation illustrates is that younger officers in the Petraeus model and, like Nagl, around Petraeus himself are faring nowhere near as well. The other most famous case, too resonant and complicated to do more than mention at the moment, involves Col. H.R. McMaster: author of Dereliction of Duty, a book that has had tremendous influence within the military. (More on McMaster here.) He has been a successful combat leader in Iraq but, as every serving officer knows, he has twice been “passed over” for promotion to general. Unfortunately there are a lot of other examples, involving not just Petraeus’s own coterie but promising-yet-stifled officers more generally…
