Hi everyone,

I just joined the Small wars journal community so I could share this email. Bill thanked me for my comment and asked me to post it, so here it is:

Dear Small Wars Journal editor,

I found your site at an article archived at the Washington Post about officers in the military with Ph.D's. Here is the link. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...0401196_2.html After I wrote a term paper for my archives class on veterans and military records, I became very interested in the military efforts on counter-insurgency. I read an article Gen. Petraeus wrote called "Beyond the Cloister," which is found in his list of published works at the end of a wikipedia article detailing him, archived at http://www.the-american-interest.com...m?Id=290&MId=1

When I read what he wrote in that article, I gained a new level of respect of the military and realized my own biases as a civilian currently earning a master's in Library and Information Science. Here is what Gen. Petraeus wrote that broadened my perspective:

"The truth is that, just as the military has developed certain stereotypes of academics, journalists and other civilians over the years, these groups in turn hold certain stereotypes about those in the military. It’s important that we in the military understand those we serve—the American people—and it is equally important that our citizens understand those in uniform who have raised their right hand and sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic."

I realized I was one of those academics that held stereotypes, when I thought I was truly becoming an educated person. Many anti-war protesters of the Vietnam War became professors who teach in civilian universities across the country. Until I read Gen. Petraeus's words of wisdom, I realized that I inherited the bias of my liberal professors without thinking. I understand that my professors are still against war in general. But it is because you brave men and women in the armed forces protect us, that we have the luxury in our civilian universities to criticize that which we do not understand.

I read an excellent editorial at armytimes.com detailing how it is thanks to this nation's men and women in armed uniform, that global trade is protected and can flourish. Never once in any of my classes did my professors explain the vital role of the US military in protecting global trade. Academics can "blame" the military, but the bottom line is that, there will always be someone out there who does not follow rules, therefore a military to protect the free world is necessary.

An article in my school, UCLA, complained that UCLA should not sponsor the management of the Los Alamos labs, where military defense and weapons are developed. But the student who wrote that article in the Daily Bruin, UCLA's paper, clearly lacked the awareness that the military protects global trade. I am aware that in the section of your site, you call for submissions from students of military science at military schools. I attend a civilian school. But I wanted to apologize as a civilian and an academic for the bias I held until I read Gen. Petraeus's work.

It is my sincerest wish that my email goes one step further, by bridging the gap between academics and the military, coming from the academic camp. It is also my deepest desire as a citizen of this country that the Afghan people may find peace and rebuild their lives with Gen. Petraeus's effects in that country. God Bless you folks in uniform, I hope we, the civilian population, began to open our eyes at the efforts you brave warriors make.