Military incompetence

Military incompetence refers to failures of members of the military.

Often, some of the following factors can contribute to these failures:

A conservative and traditional attitude, often marked by the misuse or rejection of newer technology and the inability to learn from experience.
Rejection of information which challenges preconceptions.
Overestimating the abilities of one's own side and underestimating those of the enemy.
Indecisiveness and the inability to consider swift action, marked by a failure to exploit battlefield gains.
Over-persistence.
Frontal assaults and brute force over surprise, deception and/or tactical skill.
In defeat, the search for scapegoats and the suppression of information.
A belief in fate or luck rather than a rational assessment.

See also: First Afghan War; Crimean War; Indian Mutiny; Boer War; most battles or campaigns in World War I - notably Verdun, Ypres and the Somme; World War II - Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, Tobruk, Singapore, Dieppe, Arnhem; Tet Offensive, etc.