Look what has happened during the ‘war’ on Covid-19

• IF you equate the six-months’ “war” on coronavirus Covid-19 to factors for military incompetence, the last six months have witnessed these 14:

– 1) a serious wastage of human resources, failure to observe a first principle of a “war”, economy of force;

– 2) an inability to learn from past experiences, owing to a refusal to admit past mistakes, plus failure to use (or misuse) of available technology;

– 3) a tendency to reject or ignore unpalatable information;

– 4) a tendency initially to underestimate “the enemy” and overestimate the capabilities of one’s own side;

– 5) indecisiveness and a tendency to abdicate from the role of decision-maker;

– 6) an obstinate persistence in a task despite contrary evidence;

– 7) failure to exploit a situation gained;

– 8) failure to make adequate reconnaissance;

– 9) A predilection for frontal assaults, often against the enemy’s strongest point;

– 10) belief in brute force (lockdown / anti-civil liberties?) rather than the clever ruse;

– 11) failure to make use of surprise;

– 12) readiness to find scapegoats for set-backs;

– 13) suppression or distortion of news, rationalised as necessary for morale / security; and

– 14) a belief in mystical forces – fate, bad luck, it will “just vanish”. *

* Prof NF Dixon: On the Psychology of Military Incompetence (1976).

MIKE BOR
St George’s Fields, W2