General Mattis, Stand Up to Trump or He’ll Drag You Down
by Thomas Friedman, NYT, Oct 24, 2017https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/opinion/general-mattis.html?comments&_r=0#permid=24577342
I am very worried by Americans' tendency of adulation, uncritical, almost religious admiration of military leaders - this always raises uncomfortable parallels to my country of birth, Germany, where the Prussian militarist tendencies played a large part in the ease with which the country followed a leader dressed up in a uniform.
Let's face it, our military leaders have been wrong more often than they have been right, and they have a long history of allowing themselves to be used for political expediency - just remember the Vietnam War, where it was obvious from the early days of the Johnson administration, that the war could not be "won" (whatever that has come to mean), yet the Generals kept sending more young men to die senselessly. Even McMasters, who wrote a much heralded dissertation critical of the Vietnam era military leadership, has debased himself by lying to the public on behalf of Trump.
The same can be said of the Iraq and Afghanistan disasters, where either the military leadership was/is completely blind and ignorant, or they supported each new "surge" for political expediency.
Thus, I have never understood the hope and optimism which the press and pundits placed in the presence of military leaders in what is supposed to be a civilian government. We need to start seeing our military leaders for what they are - humans with flaws, sometimes significant, selling out to Russia in the guise of consulting, not some pseudo holy-men.
No comments:
Post a Comment