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2025-01-11 Government Corruption
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US Military General David Petraeus in 2005 Yes, US generals should be fired
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[Responsible Statecraft] In October 1939, just one month after he took over as Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall famously winnowed the ranks of hidebound senior officers to prepare for war. "Most of them have their minds set in outmoded patterns," Marshall told his leadership team, "and can’t change to meet the new conditions they may face if we become involved in the war that started in Europe."
Every democracy since a defeated Athens has pruned its senior leaders proven inadequate to the demands of their respective era — often more painful than mere public shame. Ours may be the only era when an entire general and admiralty class — more than 80% of which gain employment in the defense sector after retirement — has been consistently rewarded with lucre and prestige for losing.
With two failed wars and scores of weapons acquisition fiascoes now secured in history’s dustbin, many may fear that virtue itself has been swept from the floor. Mainstream deference to "self-serving delusion" has sustained an unearned and stunting faith in a senior leadership selection system made hollow by long-past assumptions.
Therefore, Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth’s impassioned plea to focus upon the people who serve and his condemnation of a self-perpetuating, class-creating leadership system may, if we can look past the vitriol of our day, herald our very own Marshall moment to deter war rather than to fight one.
First, most Americans do not realize that the competitive promotion board system for our military, as defined by law, ends after two-star selection. All three and four-star officers are thus political appointees — in every sense. No selection board convenes to nominate them to the Secretary, President, or Congress. So who culls the anointed from the herd? It falls to each uniformed service chief to manage an ever-shrinking, hermetically-sealed talent pool, presenting a goldilocks-like offering of options to the civilian Secretary who will then forward recommendations to the Secretary of Defense. The products of those selections, when confirmed by the Senate, will often outlast their civilian masters in duration of service. The long-term stakes of national security couldn't be higher.
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Posted by Besoeker 2025-01-11 12:21||
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Posted by Procopius2k 2025-01-11 13:48||
2025-01-11 13:48||
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