In The Expanse, Book 3, what is meant by "incompetent" when referring to this character?

Question

Not sure if this is spoilers or not, but

Ashford

is referred to as "incompetent" at least once. It seems, though, that he was just given a bad lot. For example,

Bull was insubordinate in the sick bay and, in a normal situation, Ashford should have cracked down hard. There was no real reason to trust anyone else in the flotilla to send over only their injured and unarmed. As a captain, didn't Ashford react as he was supposed to?

In addition,

When the Roci was broadcasting the message about the Seung Un, Ashford did not want to fire on them. That makes some sense - another ship was claiming to be OPA and threatening the flotilla's ships, the Behemoth was totally untested and, when it fired, it broke the ship. Ashford not wanting to fire seemed like a prudent move

So what was it about his actions that were "incompetent"?

Answer 1

The 'incompetent' comment was from the point of view of Bull, who had a dim view of Ashford from the start:

“Ashford has only ever done a right thing because he’s afraid of being embarrassed. He’s a pretty uniform surrounding vacuum. And you can’t rely on that.”

In the key scene where 'incompetent' is used, Bull has worked out the probable outcomes of the situation far faster than anyone else - although Pa follows his logic and grasps it faster than Ashford does. Taking out Ashford's lines, Bull says:

“Sir, there’s a calculation happening right now with Earth and Mars both, where they have to decide whether to take direct response or let Holden win, and once they start shooting at him, they’re going to start shooting at us.”

He's slow to work out the ramifications, but in a time-critical situation competence would be to make the right decision in time, and he doesn't do it - therefore is incompetent. The issue that firing the railgun causes is a result of decisions that he and Pa made earlier, and in any case leaves them in a better position than having the entire Earth (and possibly Mars) fleet firing on them.