Joke?

This is coolbert:

From a previous blog entry this question was asked: "Devoted readers to the blog and those others - - YOUR comments and response?"

Ike joking or serious or a combination of both? Amiable banter with a good friend, the amateur exceeding the strategic vision of the professional is the question? At least in some respects perhaps?

And some good comments and response were received and are posted for your edification!

"I think it was a funny joke, gently poking fun at his civilian friend for his grand statements about military strategy, and gently poking fun of the military comparing it to prostitution"

"Ike was right in his joke. The joke is also true for him. The reason is this: Military professionals are [do] not exist, because the army is an anti – intellectual Institution. In Army there is no real investigations and conclusions. That's why defects back in the wars again and again"

"As to the merits of the statement itself, military strategy is the great lost art in today's Western discourse, especially after Vietnam. Just ask Prof. V. D. Hanson. Therefore, I call false on the statement. History is full of the wreckage left behind by amateur strategists, most notably by one former Austrian corporal who remains very much a part of said discourse."

From my perspective, given the context, IKE WAS NOT JOKING!

A serious response done in a jocular manner.

Those most senior military commanders in the pre-war years [WW2] having formulated a variety of well-thought plans, MOST not brought into fruition OR not working if implemented. The weaponry and tactics of the era having so radically changed since the last war [WW1], the operational art and strategic thinking as having been taught at the general staff and command schools and war colleges of the various combatants no longer VALID, the senior professional military officer as encountered by Ike lacking, "out to sea", NOT incompetent but rather INADEQUATE!!

That is my perspective. Ike at the time was a Major General "on the way up", knowing that the prior schools of thought were no longer applicable!

And much thanks to all contributors. Your insight and thoughts appreciated.

coolbert.