General McChrystal Disserves

The conduct of General McChrystal and his staff, for whom he bears full responsibility, is a gross deviation from the standard of conduct of any officer in the United States Army. He should be relieved of his command immediately. However, to dwell further on McChrystal is to further feed an arrogance that was at the core of the conduct. General McChrystal, by the reported conduct, has created a situation that may undercut the mission of our forces in Afghanistan and thereby devalue the gains made through the suffering and deaths of our men and women. The impatience of an American people distracted from the reasons we are fighting in Afghanistan will only be enflamed by the appearances, if not actualities, of disunity at the highest levels of our efforts. The General and his staff have dishonored themselves and the men and women valiantly serving in that theater of war.

The reported conduct does not reflect on nor diminish the years of extraordinary service and personal sacrifice he has shown in the performance of duty. The President could still draw upon McChrystal’s experience and military insights by ordering him to work at the direction of his replacement in a staff position outside the operational area. I recognize the inherent difficulties of such an arrangement but, the mission being paramount, the egos will just have to suck it up or resign.

Another Retrospective

I received a notice yesterday announcing the premier of "Inside the Vietnam War" on the National Geographic Channel onMonday, February 18 at 8 PM EST. The program is three hours long.

Maybe I should just trust the proponents of this program but I have seen too many Vietnam retrospectives that simply p---- me off. In everything I have seen as time has passed there seems to be a need by these "historians" to give the vast number of non-veteran, baby-boomers who protested, evaded the draft or simply enjoyed the good life at home a "feel-good" sense of approval. Their protest, evasion or indifference has become an essential part of these productions because Vietnam was the "wrong war" or because of the My Lai atrocities or tales of fabrications of body counts or whatever. The narrations always point to the "big picture." The in-country portion invariably shows the same napalm run over a seemingly peaceful village, the naked child running from conflict and the early stages of the Tet Offensive. Of course, there are the interviews with troops who suffer from PTSD. My view or the conclusions of others on the "big picture" or the politics are not relevant to my views here.
It seems that it has taken 60 years to present, truthfully and dramatically, the bravery, integrity and selflessness during combat of the World War II grunts. A visitor to the magazine section at any bookstore will find multiple shelves reporting the battles and heroics of the Civil War and World War II. You may find a bi-monthly magazine on Vietnam. Maybe it will take a like period of time for the retrospectives or documentaries or motion pictures to pick up on the fact that the men, draftees or volunteers, who fought in the jungles of Vietnam have their own singular, monumental story. Those who fought all know some of those stories and those of the nurses and doctors, of those on the rivers and off the coast, of the chopper pilots and gunners, of the close air support, et al. The only venue for these stories now seems to be the scattered, almost anonymous, Internet web sites sought out primarily by other veterans.

The men and women now fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are now rightfully the focus of the public's interest. And there have been some good productions from Iraq on television. Even now, however, the fickle great-American-public seems to be losing interest in these combat experiences. "Hamburger Hill," like "Pork Chop Hill" before it, presented some of the best qualities of the veteran in combat. That snapshot is overwhelmed, however, by these supposedly historical documentaries. The bottom line for me is until the bravery, integrity and selflessness of the men and women who fought and died in Vietnam is made the singular thesis of a documentary I don't care to watch another supposedly "balanced" history.

A letter to a classmate.

With all due respect, now, more than ever, is the time for such discussions. Your comment suggests that there had been an earlier conversation [about the Iraq War] among the class. I regret that I missed that opportunity. I believe that the conversation should have never ended. Our country is in an approach to a general election. Notwithstanding the cherry-picked issues of the candidates and the media during the primaries, the fundamental concern must be the character, competence and qualification of those who would be our elected leaders. The decisions of this present administration over the course of the past seven years now form the framework of what we as a nation have become and, to a great measure, define the position we maintain in each “crisis” situation around the world. Now is precisely the time, for example, to educate ourselves and discuss the events and actors that pulled us out of Afghanistan and put us into Iraq. Now is the time to discuss the competence, character and policies of the current administration and to apply those negative or positive lessons and value-judgments in our evaluation of which direction our country should now move.

I suggest that is it our duty, a duty greater than most other Americans, to the men and women now serving and who will serve over the next generation, to continue to educate ourselves and others about the leadership lessons of the Iraq war. One of my concerns has been that we as a nation will now blindly accept the status quo and not call to account the decisions and “deciders” that brought us to this point in Iraq. It is far too easy just to say “We are in Iraq so we need to support the troops.” I fully support the magnificent effort of the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. We cannot pullout precipitously. However, the fact that this effort is finally being applied in a tactically sound, counter-insurgent manner with increasing success, should not, must not, cause us to ignore the nature and conduct of the leaders who brought us to this moment. These lessons should control the present, presidential political debate. Who knows, there may even be time to discuss the use of torture, Middle-East policy, the Fourth Amendment to the Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus or even why the Army forgot the lessons our men died teaching us in Vietnam. Having graduated in the bottom five percent of our class I have always admired the intelligence of my classmates [including those few whose names are found after my own]. With the experience and education gained since June 1965 I think we might just have something to contribute.

Another General Speaks

I heard it up close and personal forty-five years ago. We could have used his strengths these past five years. Perhaps even his perceived weakness, his ego, would have been an effective counter force in pursuit of sound military strategy against incompetent civilian planning.

In this speech Gen. MacArthur continues to speak to the professional military officer. The conduct of the general officer ranks of the United States military in recent years can be judged against this code of Duty, Honor and Country. All Americans need to try to understand this ethic to help put into proper context the perspectives of the professional military man and woman. It is not the complete answer but it is an excellent introductory lecture.

http://www.aogusma.org/PUBS/Register/MacA.htm