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Afghanistan PowerPoint Tirade Results in More Military Dismissals

by Warren Riddle on August 27, 2010 at 04:25 PM

powerpoint iconBack in June, General Stanley McChrystal lost his command of the U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan because of critical quotations attributed to him in a Rolling Stone feature. Apparently, not much has changed in the past two months under replacement General David Petraeus. This week, the Army reportedly dismissed 61-year-old Col. Lawrence Sellin from his staff officer position in Afghanistan after Sellin submitted a scathing critique of military command and protocol to United Press International. In his op-ed, Sellin specifically derides the Army's daily reliance on tedious, uninformative and repetitive PowerPoint presentations.

Concerns over the military's problematic PowerPoint dependence truly materialized earlier this year, when observers asserted that "on-the-clock time could be better spent" than constantly wallowing in bullet-point-induced boredom. Sellin's piece echoes that sentiment, but it also contains slightly (well, egregiously) more caustic verbiage. With regard to the presentations, Sellin complains of "endless tinkering," "redundant" terminology and the "semi-comatose" generals in attendance. In an environment where "structure always trumps function," Sellin contends, "the slides only change when a new commander arrives or the war ends." Since "the commander never attends," though, it seems the unfortunate slide-sufferers must interminably endure a newly established tech Catch-22.

While the dismissal may seem heavy-handed, the armed forces initiated an anti-blog campaign several years ago, so Sellin (who has a Ph.D.) must have foreseen the repercussions of his diatribe. "Throughout my career I have been known to walk that fine line between good taste and unemployment," Sellin claims. But, with statements and characterizations like,"I have not done anything productive," "little of substance is really done here," "bloated organization," "cognitively challenged generals" and "progress in the war is optional," Sellin's fine line morphs into a tightrope, or -- more accurately -- a PowerPoint plank.

Tags: David Petraeus, DavidPetraeus, microsoft, microsoft powerpoint, MicrosoftPowerpoint, powerpoint, stanley mcchrystal, StanleyMcchrystal, top, united states military, UnitedStatesMilitary, US Armed Forces, us army, UsArmedForces, UsArmy, war in afghanistan, WarInAfghanistan

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