Hey Joe, I’ve felt for years that a complete collapse of basic education - to include fostering formal logic and critical thinking - not ‘even’ but especially in elite circles, is largely to blame for the sociopathic dysfunction of 21st century US policy, foreign and domestic.
Hey Joe, I’ve felt for years that a complete collapse of basic education - to include fostering formal logic and critical thinking - not ‘even’ but especially in elite circles, is largely to blame for the sociopathic dysfunction of 21st century US policy, foreign and domestic.
Stovepiping is a term where information is sent up the chain of command without context of what's happening around it, and often not checking its validity.
As an example the user collects information on the number of tanks Russia has through image intelligence, but doesn't connect it with human intelligence (a spy) who would be able to verify if those tanks were real or inflatables.
These Pentagon Papers 2.0 have that. Examples are very low numbers of Ukrainians dead because the Pentagon hasn't verified the data, Russian equipment reported destroyed when it's only damaged and subsequently repaired, no real estimates on the numbers of Ukrainian troops KIA / WIA / MIA (important to know if an attack is being planned), etc.
So, essentially, stovepiping is a political manouvre whereby raw intel is fed up the chain so that whoever can put a spin on it for his political goals can do so.
Of course this has one big downside: if the spin comes tumbling down & the music stops, the one without a chair comes falling down with it.
Partial / not verified information is fed up the chain of command (doesn't have to be intelligence, but assume in this case it is to keep things consistent and easy to understand).
Oftentimes people use stovepiping to protect their career. You don't know what work I'm doing, so you can't take my position away type of scenario.
The end result however it's done / for whatever underlying purposes, is that the decision makers don't have a full picture on which to draw conclusions.
Imagine Major D. reported Russia has 500 tanks of which 400 were shown to be burned in videos and photographs. Sounds good until you learn 300 were repairable / repaired in subsequent weeks. Meaning in reality Russia only suffered 100 true losses to its tanks.
So Major D., the image intelligence guy didn't work with Sargent C., the human intelligence girl who would have sent her spies to verify those losses.
I'm not picking on Russia. You can equally apply this to weapon systems that went missing* in Ukraine, troop losses, etc.
* missing can be destroyed, or sold on the black market. There are lots of reports of NATO-shipped-to-Ukraine materiel now in the possession of European underworld gangs.
Also reports of a HIMARS launcher and 3 missiles which were sold to Russia by Ukrainian operators around August 2022 for ~$1.2 million. (Yes, DoD when they don't look, won't find anything...)
Hey Joe, I’ve felt for years that a complete collapse of basic education - to include fostering formal logic and critical thinking - not ‘even’ but especially in elite circles, is largely to blame for the sociopathic dysfunction of 21st century US policy, foreign and domestic.
A question though: What is ‘stovepiping’?
Stovepiping is a term where information is sent up the chain of command without context of what's happening around it, and often not checking its validity.
As an example the user collects information on the number of tanks Russia has through image intelligence, but doesn't connect it with human intelligence (a spy) who would be able to verify if those tanks were real or inflatables.
These Pentagon Papers 2.0 have that. Examples are very low numbers of Ukrainians dead because the Pentagon hasn't verified the data, Russian equipment reported destroyed when it's only damaged and subsequently repaired, no real estimates on the numbers of Ukrainian troops KIA / WIA / MIA (important to know if an attack is being planned), etc.
So, essentially, stovepiping is a political manouvre whereby raw intel is fed up the chain so that whoever can put a spin on it for his political goals can do so.
Of course this has one big downside: if the spin comes tumbling down & the music stops, the one without a chair comes falling down with it.
Partial / not verified information is fed up the chain of command (doesn't have to be intelligence, but assume in this case it is to keep things consistent and easy to understand).
Oftentimes people use stovepiping to protect their career. You don't know what work I'm doing, so you can't take my position away type of scenario.
The end result however it's done / for whatever underlying purposes, is that the decision makers don't have a full picture on which to draw conclusions.
Imagine Major D. reported Russia has 500 tanks of which 400 were shown to be burned in videos and photographs. Sounds good until you learn 300 were repairable / repaired in subsequent weeks. Meaning in reality Russia only suffered 100 true losses to its tanks.
So Major D., the image intelligence guy didn't work with Sargent C., the human intelligence girl who would have sent her spies to verify those losses.
I'm not picking on Russia. You can equally apply this to weapon systems that went missing* in Ukraine, troop losses, etc.
* missing can be destroyed, or sold on the black market. There are lots of reports of NATO-shipped-to-Ukraine materiel now in the possession of European underworld gangs.
Also reports of a HIMARS launcher and 3 missiles which were sold to Russia by Ukrainian operators around August 2022 for ~$1.2 million. (Yes, DoD when they don't look, won't find anything...)
ok no problem buddy , sorry if i stepped on your toes there.
You sound like someone in the loop who feels unduly burned, and for that. I apologize.
But you have to admit that stovepiping protects the big potatoes at the cost of the small fry.