Post by Francesca Graham

Our Professional Military Education (PME) in the United States Department of War is robust, and is also incredibly lacking.  PME teaches us doctrine, tactics, and leadership theory. It does not teach us how to think — how to spot the mental shortcuts that quietly distort judgment. We see it at the Walk the Talk Foundation on a near daily basis - in our engagements with leaders, military and civilian alike. It’s time that changed. What follows is a catalog of the dissonances we encounter nearly every single day. These are not hypothetical reasoning errors lifted from a philosophy textbook. They are the actual responses — the deflections, the false equivalences, the credentialing, the intellectual shortcuts — that emerge when we raise hard questions with military leadership, DoD officials, and the online community of veterans and advocates who engage with these issues. Pete Hegseth Gary Payton Matt Lohmeier Dennis McGinn Dan Driscoll Hung Cao Platte Moring Courtney Fones Jenn Maceda Jaryd Bern Michael J. Roark Peter Cairns Steve Nordhaus Maj Gen Duke Pirak Thomas Whitfield II Ricky Buria Dave Fitzgerald Jim Kilby Mike Weimer Tim Rieger Mark Mazzetti Brett Forrest Nicholas Slayton Sonner Kehrt Rose L Thayer Caitlin Doornbos Mary Louise Kelly Jennifer Griffin Steve G. Austin Jackson James Bates Ryan M. Coyne, PMP Ryan Sweazey Michael Kans Griffin Paterson Grace G.