Too Much Thinking...

I just stumbled across this article written by a British General Officer and published in the Army journal Military Review. After having a British General and the Ambassador come speak at West Point, I was begining to get the idea that the British had nothing to say other than "good job" and "we're with you!" In fact, it was begining to get downright dusgusting how lap-dogish what I was hearing from the British was, espeically considering what I'd heard in London from the general public was quite the opposite of what I was hearing. Well, Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster, a commander in Iraq, has written an article which is very critical of the way the war is being waged in Iraq. Not of going to war itself, which he supported, but of how we, US soldiers, are doing our jobs, from the top down. Here are some choice quotes (although, I reccomend to anyone who knows or wants to know about US military operations from an unbiased source to read the full article);

[soldiers] almost unfailingly courteous and considerate. [But] at times their cultural insensitivity, almost certainly inadvertent, arguably amounted to institutional racism.

In a Guardian review of the article, they write;

While US officers in Iraq criticised their allies for being too reluctant to use force, their strategy was "to kill or capture all terrorists and insurgents: they saw military destruction of the enemy as a strategic goal in its own right". In short, the brigadier says, "the US army has developed over time a singular focus on conventional warfare, of a particularly swift and violent kind".

It is interesting actually as I'd just watched the speech that General Schwarzkopf gave the Corps of Cadets for my Psychology class, which is focused on leadership. One thing he said, which I thought had a lot of resonance, was;

...In the final analysis, you should never forget that the airpoanes don't fly, the tanks don't run, the ships don't sail, the missiles don't fire--unless the sons and daughters of America make them do it. It's just that simple.
The mothers and fathers of America will ive you their sons and daughters. They will hand you their sons and daughters with the confidence that you will not needlessly waste their lives. And you dare not. You absolutely dare not. That's the burden the mantle of leadership places upon you.

I realize the connection may not be quite immediately apparent as most often, I'm the only one who sees the connection between the things that come out of my mouth (or pen...in this case), but I couldn't stop thinking about this quote. I guess there are times when I realize fully what it is, what it means, for me to be here. When it becomes clear what I am supposed to do and what is expected of me. When General Schwarzkopf said what he said, it can be applied equally to those who make decisions about when to go to war (and, in fact, I only wish the leaders of our country had heard, and heeded, his words before deciding on our current course) but also on the individual soldier and lowest platoon leader out there. It is the decisions I will make which will effect, at the most direct level, the changes that Brigadere Nigel Aylwin-Foster sees as neccessary and right for the US to make to finish this war with our character intact.