Turf battles.

• Author: Sapolsky, Harvey
• Position: READERS' FORUM: VIEWS ... COMMENTS ... SUGGESTIONS - Letter to the editor

* I am not certain that you want to hear from cranky academics, but I think your Defense Watch piece in the July 2008 issue, "Pentagon Bracing for Yet Another Round of Turf Battles," was way off the mark. Inter-service rivalry is the solution to, not the cause of most important defense issues. The services when they compete for roles and missions reveal information about each other that jointness suppresses. This rivalry is a stimulus to new thinking--innovation.

And rivalry gives civilians leverage that they otherwise find difficult to gain in a discussion about war in a roomful of generals and admirals. Forcing a bit of competition is as beneficial in the Defense Department as it is in the marketplace. The services are fans of meaningless jointness--logrolling that provides no criticism of each others' plans or programs.

The inter-agency stuff is cant. The military will gladly give the State Department as...