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How Powerpoint is winning the war in Afghanistan

What is this mess on the left I hear you ask?

Believe it or not it is a Powerpoint slide to descibe the military situation in Afghanistan.

On seeing it General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO force commander, was heard to remark 'When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war.'

You may click on the image to view it in all its glory but it will leave you none the wiser I'll posit

Source: Mail Online

Comments

  1. Symptomatic of the way the upper echelons of the American military (and a few others, too) have morphed into bureaucrats and away from the warrior ethos.
    No wonder they throw their own troops to the wolves any time the crap looks like hitting the fan.

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  2. Those who criticise this are showing their own lack of intellect, their inability to grasp complex concepts. The diagramme illustrates the inteconnectredness of the problem and its solutions.

    You remind me of the same small minds who howled down Barry Jones's Knowledge Nation report in Oz because they couldn't understand the conceptsd, so picked on the illustration.

    Scroll down to Figure 1.

    http://www.katelundy.com.au/2001/10/30/an-agenda-for-the-knowledge-nation-1-introduction/

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  3. And maybe read this, too, from Barry Jones.

    http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/24/1069522520574.html

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  4. Those who criticise this are showing their own lack of intellect, their inability to grasp complex concepts.

    Reminds me of the story of the Emperor's new cloths - those that couldn't see them were "showing their own lack of intellect" as you'll recall.

    Indeed the people who did admire the outfit were really the ones "showing their own lack of intellect" because of course there was nothing to see.

    Different times, different double talk.

    In truth those of high intellect and who are successful are good communicators as a rule - they make complex ideas accessible to the masses.

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  5. So they haven't read 'Boyd'...

    And totally misinterpreted Sun Tsz. It's the OTHER side you are meant to confuse...

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  6. Tzu!

    One day I will learn to type.

    or buy some new glasses!

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  7. "Those who criticise this are showing their own lack of intellect, their inability to grasp complex concepts."

    You,really are an odious little lefty troll, fugley. And ignorant to boot.
    If officers such as McChrystal consider it unnecessarily complex, then I guess he must also be showing his lack of intellect and an ability to grasp complex concepts?

    From his bio:
    EDUCATIONAL DEGREES
United States Military Academy – BS – No Major
United States Naval War College – MA – National Security and Strategic Studies
Salve Regina University – MS – International Relations
    MILITARY SCHOOLS ATTENDED
Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses
United States Naval Command and Staff College
Senior Service College Fellowship Harvard University...
    and there's much, much more.
    http://www.cfr.org/publication/19396/biography_of_lieutenant_general_stanley_mcchrystal.html

    some "lack of intellect", eh?

    You're a clown.

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  8. The chart was produced by consultants, Os--that breed we know and despise. ;)

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  9. No doubt fugley's an expert on the OODA loop too, Oswald. (at least, he will be after goes and googles it)

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  10. Only a consultant could produce a [cut out of respect for the blog owners] rat's nest of bovine scatology

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  11. I use mind maps and charting techniques fairly often to sort my ideas. However, if I'm going to communicate those ideas, I would never show the "raw data".

    What we have here is a failure to communicate.

    I suspect that was partly created by a desire of the presenter to make the whole thing look "incredibly complex", and try to impress the audience in all of their "hard thinking".

    I'll dig up a fantastic power point comedy presentation later that hilariously illustrates the dangers of idiot presenters.

    It's just another form of consultantitis, and we could also turn to Dilbert to get a pretty good summary of how ridiculous such things are, and that's only because he is good at drawing from real life experiences.

    Sure, one could drill into the slide and work out what it's saying, but that's not the point in a presentation.

    I would suggest to these clowns that it's literally "Back to the drawing board".

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  12. From a distance it looks like a mind map of how to understand women.

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  13. Much too simple for that, Ozy. For starters, the terms don't keep changing. ;)

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  14. No section on shoes that I could see.

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