Loss of trust and confidence as a time for change

It happens all the time in the military at all levels of command. Sometimes the relief’s at the higher levels of command gain national attention. The most recent one is the General at Walter Reed. Whether he got a fair shake or not is not important. A message was sent. Take care of the patients, and if you can’t, holler for help, as in money, staffing, facilities, etc. Just don’t go along, or cover it up, even if your predecessors did so and got away with it. It works especially well at the lower levels. Being an officer has a lot of responsibilities, and there are “firings”.

Most of our senior military leaders are gunfighters, and politicians as well. How else to get past the two star level that is promotion board oriented. For neophytes, officers are selected up to two star level by promotion boards of their peers. After that they are nominated by their sponsors, and confirmed by the Senate (as are all officers) for further responsibilities. This is a pretty good system for our Country, which can’t lose since there are so many really sharp officers. Yes along the way, some really sharp officers get “passed over” and it really hurts their egos, but the Country still benefits by the process since those who make it through the wickets are good for us.

Along the way, all of these officers have been ordered to take time off and go to school to be educated in a professional school at a college graduate level. No one assumes they are born knowing how to think. We train and teach them in our own best sort of way. This is a tough process, because the higher up in the education level an officer goes the more he competes with his peers that are just as sharp as he is. While the individual can lose, the Country can’t in this process. And yes, all are subject to the idea that “for lack of knowing what to do, we do what we know”. That is one main objective of the Goldwater-Nichols Act. It makes the military knock heads together and think about the idea of team. The creation of DOD in 1947 was the first start in this direction.

Lest one think it is obvious, it is not so, past and present. Start with Germany in WWII which had a military and its SS. The former served the country, the latter served the Party. Japan had its Army and its Navy, and each attempted to fight its own war. History there teaches that no one knocked heads together to gain unity of effort. Now take Iran which has its military which serves the country, and the Army of God which serves its theocratic party. Somehow, we in the USA are starting to look better and better, military wise, at least. Our left and right hands usually talk to each other.

There has been a very good argument that during Vietnam, and maybe since, many of our senior military leaders have gone along to get along. The normal argument is that one chooses to try change things from the inside given the opportunity. Serious military advice about strategies, tactics, and impacts to their political leaders has been, well, lacking. Why, for example, has not one military fellow resigned in protest to ignoring his advice. Good point. I suggest this has happened, and the reporting has been inadequate. Victor Krulak advised Lyndon Johnson in a way that got him replaced. Shinseki said his piece, and was politically isolated by Rumsfeld. Zinni stepped up to plate about the Cole and other such decisions, and became persona non grata. Yet the point about military resignations in protest is still well taken.

Given this critique about our USA military system, all is fair in questioning our other national departments. After all, high standards of selection and performance are equal if we want to advance our National Interest.

I seriously think our State Department has a culture that serves itself, and not the latest political leader, normally called the President. Given the Deparments $32 billion dollar budget in FY 2006, and even thinking about these people deciding American foreign policy in their vision, it is obviously time for change. First those who refuse to deploy to Iraq must be fired (although their union may attenuate this). Second a professional education program like the militaries must be begun. Third a professional “colonial corps” that goes way beyond the present coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization is a must.

If this seems to be too D.C. oriented and just complaining, let me be more laser like. The President has directed a surge. State has asked Defense to fill 120 of their 350 quotas. One of my young friends, a Marine reservist who is a successful chicken farmer also going to Med school with his daughter, is going to Iraq as an agricultural advisor. I am bitter that he may be filling a quota assigned to State.