Saddened by what I’m learning about LTG Dell L. Dailey

OK, so it took me a while to finally getting around to reading Relentless Strike by Naylor. A recent acquaintance who had been a Ranger, later ISA and CIA, encouraged me to read it. He said he was surprised by how generally accurate it was regarding his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is his way of sharing a little about his experiences without actually having yo divulge anything not already out there.

Anyway, not once or twice, but repeatedly throughout the book, Dailey is making poor command decisions that directly result in unnecessary American deaths. He doesn’t listen to the leaders on the ground with situational awareness and he certainly doesn’t listen to the experienced operators who are in the mix. It is really hard to read how risk averse he was, which then led to additional deaths.

I’ve spent my own multiple years over there but always supporting infantry units. Not entirely naive to politics and bureaucracy but I always thought the operators had free rein to make good decisions and be supported by command. Doing some basic searches, it appears this did begin to be the case once Dailey left and McChrystal took over.

TLDR: Was Dailey not the right man for the job, or did Naylor get this all wrong?