War and PowerPoint

By Nick Seaver, April 27, 2010

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The New York Times today had a front page, above the fold, story today about what must be the most commonly abused communications tools: PowerPoint.

In a cleverly named piece (“We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint“), Elisabeth Bumiller looks at the now infamous PowerPoint diagram of the United States’ strategy in Afghanistan and the strong feelings about PowerPoint among the officers leading efforts abroad. One adviser recalls General McChrystal reacting to this chart by saying, “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.”