Army criticized for not learning from past wars.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana
• Position: Up Front

The U.S. Army must do a better job applying lessons from one conflict to another, said a senior military strategist. Events in Iraq, particularly, prove that the Army needs to reform its educational institutions to teach of ricers analytical skills and cultural awareness, said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, a former commandant of the Army's War College, in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.

"We do a wonderful job collecting the data," he said. "No one does that better than us." Teams go out to collect and absorb information, talk to the soldiers in the field about their experiences and hold seminars about their findings. However, that is not enough, said Scales. The Army must be able to take that data and compare it against lessons from previous conflicts. These "intellectual leaps" require a more thorough analytical effort than simply chronicling exploits from the battlefield.

The U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, for example, could have provided useful--although limited--lessons for urban operations in Iraq, according to Scales, despite the different natures of the two conflicts.

"The most successful urban takedown, probably in the history of the U.S., was the invasion of Panama," he said, noting that many of the "things that went wrong in Baghdad, went right in Panama. I realize it is a much different scale."

In Panama, the United States executed a quick transition to civilian authorities after the removal from power of president Manuel Noriega, said Scales. "I think it was done brilliantly."

In Iraq, conversely, the Defense Department failed to plan adequately for the transition after taking down the Saddam Hussein regime, Scales said.

Although experts agree that the Army should not be blamed for the Bush administration's miscalculations in planning the war, others, such as Scales, believe that the Army must take responsibility for not adapting its training and education programs.

Responding to congressional criticism at a separate hearing, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker said that he fundamentally disagreed with Scales' views.

The Army has made dramatic improvements in the last year and a half in the way it passes on lessons to its soldiers and trains them for operations, said Schoomaker. Proof of that is the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., which has modified its exercises to make them more realistic, Schoomaker said.

"We can do it better," he admitted. "[But] no matter how well we do, there is...