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Why no "War Studies" in the US?

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  • #31
    Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
    I have a BA in World War 2 history from West Virginia University.
    Oh that sounds like a dream class for me! :)
    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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    • #32
      Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
      Oh that sounds like a dream class for me! :)
      +1.

      On top of it, we get free ACW studies;) Exams are tough, but fun.

      AR,

      What's with you hating kittens?
      No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

      To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

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      • #33
        Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
        Oh that sounds like a dream class for me! :)
        It was a wet dream for me!!!

        And Dok, I own a dog and can't stand cats, so....
        “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
        Mark Twain

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        • #34
          I think if you go to a military college you have to take courses on strategy, but generally most universities try to concentrate on things that will be re-taught in high schools and and college, since a history degree usually can't take you any further than teaching or law school. I think it should be required though, it teaches people how to plan, get out of tough situations and so on.

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          • #35
            Originally posted by Ahnuy View Post
            I think if you go to a military college you have to take courses on strategy,
            That's command school. Half bars don't need to know how to command 10,000 men.

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            • #36
              Originally posted by Ahnuy View Post
              I think if you go to a military college you have to take courses on strategy, but generally most universities try to concentrate on things that will be re-taught in high schools and and college, since a history degree usually can't take you any further than teaching or law school. I think it should be required though, it teaches people how to plan, get out of tough situations and so on.
              Nonsense. A history degree is by definition a liberal arts education. This taught me to think broadly as well as deeply about problems and how to solve them.

              My ability to conduct research pays me huge dividends on my day to day job. I am the Deployment Operations Branch Chief in a program office in DODs largest ERP system....that's pretty far from being a lawyer or historian.

              If you are discussing military colleges as in RMC, Sandhurst, West Point, etc then, yes, they do take military history.

              But that is more to teach them about heritage. As the Colonel states you don't learn how to be a platoon leader/commander at a service academy. You learn that in your regiment or basic officer course. A military college teaches you to be a leader using an academic setting.
              “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
              Mark Twain

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              • #37
                Ahnuy

                A degree by itself does not spell out a person's life worth -- how you apply what you learned is more critical. I kid you not, many of the successful leaders in the corporate world have liberal art degrees and you will hard press to find an engineer at the C-level without a MBA or other form of supplemental education.

                Look at what degree Mr Jobs had.
                “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

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                • #38
                  My wife's History / English Literature degrees led to a 25 year career in international banking. Turns out no one taught "How We Operate Our Bank and What We Expect of Our People" in college, so the banks (in the day) would run their new hires through a 3-6 month training course, weeding out the undesirables.

                  It probably helped that she went to Harvard.
                  Trust me?
                  I'm an economist!

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                  • #39
                    I just saw this, so forgive me for taking it out of mothballs, but I taught a masters course on Terrorism and Extremist Activity for the International Relations department at Webster University of St. Louis for ten years. I taught it five times per year online, and twice per year "on ground" at their satellite campus at Luke Air Force Base here in Arizona. The subject is largely what I was doing when I retired, and they asked me to create the course from scratch. My two fellow online instructors were a retired CIA field officer who now works as a contract analyst for the DEA who had experience in the subject in Latin America, and a retired St. Louis PD Captain with a Ph.D who was real dialed in with the domestic extremist side of things. My strategic and operational art experience in the last five years of my career sort of tied it all together. That, and the formal instructor training I had received twice in the Navy. I knew how to write curricula; they didn't. I finally stepped away from it because after ten years, the world had turned over too many times. Unless one is still working in the field, it is very difficult to stay current, and no amount of toil in the library (which I did anyway) can replace that.

                    The thing about it was, I drew in not only our on the job experience, but academic backgrounds. We approached this thing using history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, criminology, as well as big picture strategic thought. Perhaps of most interest here, almost all of our students were either active duty military, or law enforcement personnel.

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                    • #40
                      Originally posted by desertswo View Post

                      The thing about it was, I drew in not only our on the job experience, but academic backgrounds. We approached this thing using history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, criminology, as well as big picture strategic thought. Perhaps of most interest here, almost all of our students were either active duty military, or law enforcement personnel.
                      And this,Sir,can become a problem.It's good ''our'' folks learn more.But I'd rather have politicians, bussinessmen and journos learn about war.
                      They're largely clueless,but have an influence that is often harmful.And that in time creates a rift in the society.Particularly if a serious situation happens.
                      Those who know don't speak
                      He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

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                      • #41
                        Originally posted by Mihais View Post
                        And this,Sir,can become a problem.It's good ''our'' folks learn more.But I'd rather have politicians, bussinessmen and journos learn about war.
                        They're largely clueless,but have an influence that is often harmful.And that in time creates a rift in the society.Particularly if a serious situation happens.
                        Agreed. It was rather disappointing that so few of our students didn't come from military/law enforcement backgrounds. However, I will say this; we taught at the strategic level of conflict. There were people in our classes who'd done plenty of real, no shit, shoot 'em up in the field, but hadn't really learned the "why" of what they were doing. One hopes that some of those folks do rise to some of the positions you mentioned, as surely some of them will (especially the cops), because I believe they will have benefited from what we were putting out there.

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