2013’s Greatest Leadership Failure
08.20.2013 at 04:59pm
2013’s Greatest Leadership Failure by CDR Salamander, USNI Blog.
There is something very wrong going on at the very highest levels of our uniformed leadership, they are not standing up for the honor and reputation of their Sailors, Marines, and our other brothers and sisters in the profession of arms.
This failure goes beyond individual failure; it is a systemic failure negatively impacting everyone from the deckplates, to the Beltway, to the post-active duty unemployment line…
This article starkly and clearly highlights the greatest military danger the United States faces, the absence of moral characters in the general officer corps of the military services. It isn’t cyberthreats, a revived AQ, cuts in funding, change in emphasis or which service gets what. We can probably survive all that. What we won’t be able to survive are senior military leaders devoid moral courage, intellectual honesty, conviction and plain old backbone. God help us if we can’t change this.
I find it interesting that sexual assault has been highlighted at a time when the same camp has been pushing complete gender integration. I wonder if pushing females into traditional male roles will have any effect on the sexual assault rate.
I wish to key in on a paragraph: “Right after Vietnam, an entire army of poseurs, fakers, and professional victim pimps began a process of smearing and mal-defining an entire generation of men that served their country with distinction and honor; the Vietnam Generation.” Our present SECDEF chimed right in with this crowd in a 2002 interview with the Veterans History Project. Read it! At one point or another in the interview he perpetuated the view that the Vietnam veteran was some drafted, out-of-control, alcoholic, pot-head, refusing combat, and not deserving of recognition. He was connected with the VA after Vietnam. He should know that VA information portrayed the real Vietnam veteran as something quite different – better educated, more prosperous, and better adjusted than his civilian contemporaries. What is discussed in the article may have its roots at the very top.
Carl,
Is there any money in moral courage, intellectual honesty, conviction and plain old backbone? Let me be the first to submit that there isn’t any money to be earned in moral courage, intellectual honesty, conviction and plain old backbone… It’s just too controversial… and controversial don’t get you hired, contracted or an office in the academic, intellectual – military complex…
… too cynical?
Hugs…
r/
MAC