I thought this was a great article as current military leaders are trying to implement lessons learned, and also fighting against the system which creates them. This American Life had a very good epsiode: "333: The Center for Lessons Learned", the military's own pre-war assessment of challenges. But I do wander why sometimes it seems too easy to employ hindsight. How do we actually learn our lessons too and understand why we could not act at the time? In my own reading of Norman Dixon's book on military incompetence, its clear that the military greats must fight against a system which through its system of discipline and anxiety reduction actually reduces flexibility and self confidence. This inflexibility in the face of uncertainty is often what drives action to extremes - of inaction or forward in the belief that it is the right thing to do. In this present war it seems to me that the military and many politicians struggled to argue successfully for their challenges and disagreements when confronted by an administration which confronted those appeals to personal beliefs rather than rational arguments. The real tragedy is that in government there should be less excuse of the system itself developing those who are not able to remain flexible in decision making under uncertainty, and yet often that seems to be what we see. The Bush administration is a good example of the constraints of belief, as well as its powers. I wrote further on my blog <link>