I had to consider how to prepare for a job that required a new skill set. As the saying goes, the military does not accept “difficult” as an excuse for failing at anything. I recalled also how hard Secretaries Perry and Cohen had worked to keep the alliance effective. I had reached a break point in my military frame of reference. I was no longer a military operator; instead I was now at a place where policy and military factors intersected. I had to understand the politics and motivations shaping member nations’ militaries and defining the unwritten rules by which they operated. These rules
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