In his recent Armed Forces Journal essay, “A Failure in Generalship,” U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling delivers a closely argued rebuke to what he sees as the intellectual and moral poverty of senior military leaders.
Combat is predominantly a physical activity. The strategy that gives combat a purpose—what precisely is the better peace we seek, and have we the means to achieve it?—is a purely intellectual pursuit. The summit of the military officer’s calling is, or should be, to serve as a strategic adviser to civilian authority. Colonel Yingling rightly calls attention to our neglect of this aspect of our profession. His assertion that Congress should initiate reforms on how we educate officers for senior command is worth further examination. Restructure the senior war colleges and their admission criteria and we will have taken a big step toward correcting the problem that Colonel Yingling has illuminated.
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