Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
How about the rather juvenile scene where the guy in the faraway comfy chair accuses those in the hot seat of cowardice and incompetence because they don't do what he thinks they should... what does one call that, if not pathetic?
Is that the best you can do?

I appreciate that your not having served as a soldier in combat precludes a practical understanding of the subject at hand.

Let’s start with (British) Major-General Sir James Wolfe:

… Room for a military criticism as well as a place for a little ridicule upon some famous transactions of that memorable day… But why this censure when the affair was happily decided? To exercise ones ill-nature? No, to exercise the facility of judging… The more a soldier thinks of the false steps of those that have gone before, the more likely his is to avoid them. - Major-General Sir James Wolfe
It should be standard practice among the officer corps to vigorously debate battles and actions of the past. As an officer cadet I was allowed to exercise my mind in this fashion – often outrageously – most probably to the intense boredom of the course staff. I was later able to return the favour to officer cadets and young officers who came under my wing.

You see I have been there and done that. I raised issues and was sometimes slapped down and sometimes thanked for the input. This is a dynamic and vital ongoing process which has an intimate outcome on the lives of young men. The importance of arming young officers with the ability see and understand the importance and end result of their decision making in terms of lives and broken bodies is – I understand – beyond the ken of those whose biggest decisions hinge around the selection of which hybrid seed to recommend for the coming season.

Physical courage is a simple matter. You either have it or you don’t. In terms of officers you need to have it in sufficient quantity to make decisions and lead your men in the stress of combat.

Moral courage is a different animal.

Moral courage is higher and a rarer virtue than physical courage. - William Slim
General Johnson did face a moral dilemma and by his own admission failed not only himself – but also his soldiers, the US military and the country. Yes, to face a moral dilemma of such magnitude is to find oneself in an intensely lonely situation. The situation he faced had not appeared overnight but rather was a situation that developed over time. He reached the point where he believed he needed to act – in his words: “I remember the day I was ready to go over to the Oval Office and give my four stars to the President…” - but then wimped out. At the time he justified it as follows: “I made the typical mistake of believing I could do more for the country and the Army if I stayed in than if I got out”.

He ends with “I am now going to my grave with that lapse in moral courage on my back.”

By his own admission General Johnson failed himself, his soldiers, the military and the country.

General Johnson believed that he faced a moral courage dilemma and believed, in retrospect, that he made the wrong choice. That cannot be extrapolated to an assumption that anyone else faces a moral courage dilemma or to any assumption about what the most courageous choice for any other individual might be. A moral courage dilemma is an intensely personal thing, and any attempt to define anyone else's dilemma or to dictate what the best or bravest choice another person could make to resolve their personal dilemma is pointless and... well, pathetic again. General Johnson is of course in a position to speak on the dilemma he faced, and to admit that in his retrospective opinion his decision was wrong. Accusing others of making wrong or cowardly choices when you're not in their shoes and have no clear or complete grasp of the dilemmas they face is a very different story.
Do you really think General Johnson needs you to make excuses for him?

He admits to the lapse… but the only thing he did not do was to place a cost – in terms of lives – on that lapse.

Yes, the decision is indeed “intensely personal” but the cost of that failure goes way beyond that. For the ultimate cost there is no one other than General Johnson who must bear the responsibility.

Let’s look at that Johnson quotation again:

“I remember the day I was ready to go over to the Oval Office and give my four stars to the President and tell him, ‘You have refused to tell the country they cannot fight a war without mobilization; you have required me to send men into battle with little hope of their ultimate victory; and you have forced us in the military to violate almost every one of the principles of war in Vietnam. Therefore, I resign and will hold a press conference after I walk out of your door.’ I made the typical mistake of believing I could do more for the country and the Army if I stayed in than if I got out. I am now going to my grave with that lapse in moral courage on my back.”

General Harold K. Johnson, quoted in Lewis Sorely, ‘To Change a War’,
Parameters, Spring 1998.
Others seem also to make the “typical mistake” of balancing an act of moral courage against the effect of acting with conscience. Even here.

Johnson blew it on a grand scale (because of his position at the time)… and this should be a case study of the failure of moral courage – or moral cowardice (as you prefer) – to be discussed at every level of officer training.

I am not accusing Johnson of cowardice… he has admitted to it. I am saying that the Johnson admission should be used to stiffen the resolve of those still serving to act according to their conscience and not make the same mistake he did by making the “typical mistake” of trying to rationalise moral cowardice in terms of the effect or outcome only.

However, all is not lost.

Here is a masters thesis from a thinking youngster which I suggest you should not only read but study. This IMHO is the type of thinking which allows one to retain a glimmer of hope for the US military as a whole.

Moral Courage or Heresy:
The Benefits and Pitfalls of Military Leaders Speaking Out

Ending with a quote from this thesis:

Conclusion: Every military leader must put aside careerist goals and rank ambition in order to speak up for what is right. They must expose flawed policies, strategies, and decisions in order to possibly save the lives of our servicemen and protect the country.