May
12
2009
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Finding The Right General |
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Written by JD Johannes
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Tuesday, 12 May 2009 |
I looked at the young guys as they prepared for another mission and started to choke up in tears and anger.
An hour earlier I had interviewed their commanding general. After the camera and mic were off and I was packing my gear, I asked him why he became an officer.
His answer shocked me. "To avoid the draft."
I looked at the guys I was about to on a mission with. The younger onese enlisted after the initial invasion of Iraq. Many more after 9/11. They were all volunteers.
I had to get out of sight for a moment while regained my composure.
Their Commanding General lacked their character and, in my opion, was unfit to lead them.
For many senior general officers, their first time leading in any type of combat is in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many were platoon and company officers in the 1970s and came up through the ranks in garrison commands where the criteria and metrics for promotion have zero relationship to what it takes to win a complex modern counter insurgency.
What is amazing is that there even are general officers of the caliber required during this time of war, who can adapt and understand the micro-tactics and macro-scale.
But for every larger than life warrior general, there are two or three who will never ever leave the wire to conduct the intensive battlefield circulation required to get real unvarnished information from the Captains who are out on the streets and down in the villages.
Counter insurgencies are won by Captains and Lt. Colonels, but lost by Generals.
And sometimes it difficult to find the right General.
In Iraq, from my personal observation, the best commanders were the ones on their second tour--Division Commanders who previously commanded a Brigade or Regiment. Brigade or Regimental Commanders who previously commanded a Battalion.
The proficiency and experience at the NCO level is unparalelled, same with Company level officers. Field grade is still a mixed bag, but the weak link is with the General Officers.
The only way to find the General Officers needed to win in an enviroment like Afghanistan may be to keep firing and replacing them until the right ones are found.
My choking up after my interview with the draft avoiding General was not the first, nor the last time I got choked up and angry.
Outside the wire, I am emotionless.
But everytime I see a hero flight, or wounded young men being evaced from a remote emergency hospital to one the major hospitals in Baghdad or Balaad, tears well up.
The Soldiers and Marines will go out and fight as hard and as long as required. They deserve a General who knows how to win.
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