A Culture of Fear
In both arenas, it appears that too many in the hierarchy and at the nuts-and-bolts level are scared to death of being accused of missing something they should have known.
In preaching leadership, we used to give people the freedom to fail based on some decision being better than the stuttering no decision. That no longer seems to be the case.
As in the POW issue, just getting them to take a look at specific real estate in this world is like pulling teeth.
How Skeptical They Are
They do not cant the satellite. They fight the very idea somebody or something might be where they never thought to look. You can talk until you are blue in the face, assuring them you are not setting them up. Forget it.
They will never believe you. Frankly this brings into question the entire much-ballyhooed, post-Vietnam leadership environment.
Are they truly that used to screwing each other in time of war? I have to tell you, this is a whole new deal.
Hiding Out
Preaching that Grey Man crap has given us a whole ton of people who would just as soon not be noticed.
I can think of no prior war where the name-tag Anonymous was the preferred handle. If you are a leader, you best stand out on the battlefield.
If you try to be the Grey Man out there, you are in the wrong profession.
In the POW realm, for years faceless experts explained away everything that came in. They claimed to be pursuing every lead.
They were not pursuing. They were filing.
Drawing a Distinction
If you think this is not going on today, you are foolish.
Of course they will say, We get up every morning with the assumption this is the day we get the name bad guy.
Want to hear the POW version?
We get up every morning operating under the assumption that American POWs are still alive.
Baloney, Anyone?
I must tell you these two statements are the biggest loads of baloney ever foisted on the American people. Are those kinds of people really this arrogant?
No. It is preferable to them if you think that is the case rather than the truth too terrible for them to admit. They are scared to death.
How the heck can you lead soldiers in combat if you are afraid of things written on a darned paper?
Forget Fear
How can you lead soldiers against the enemy if you are afraid of a picture of the enemy or a POW?
Pandering answers are unacceptable in both cases. In the words of SFC Mel McIntire on the Donahue show in 1985(I paraphrase from memory), If you are so sure no one is there, why not send us to the riverbank and wait for nobody to show up?
With but a slight variation in wording, that same question could be asked today in the terrorism realm. This is not professionally sad. This is the insanity of fear.
Most become somewhat fearful and apprehensive at times on the battlefield. But there is no place in the arena for those consumed by it. I am sad to report they are present at too many levels in this fight.
Where It Began
What is the genesis of this great fear?
It started in Vietnam when reporters and those ever-patriotic politicians started asking questions not to ascertain the truth but to be able to say at some point Gotcha.
But never in that war like in this one.
Truth Is Not the Goal
Like kids in a schoolyard, these people today are into the story and not seeking truth or winning wars. We once again have people who never commanded a Girl Scout Troop telling generals they are lying or do not understand their own battlefield.
If George Patton or even Creighton Abrams were sitting there like generals today, they would have smacked the questioner in the mouth with his own microphone.
Of course it never came to that because this was no Grey Man they were dealing with back then but a battlefield commander.
How to Strike Back
When someone does try to stand up and lead today, he is not only attacked by the media and politicians but little Grey Man leakers and whiners in uniform.
Dont believe that?
Just ask Rummy and Peter Pace.
What was the real complaint with both?
They were too loyal and too tough. Now we would not find either of those words in the Grey Man vocabulary. But were even those two tough enough? No, they were not.
In Conclusion
I would like to see one hero get off of his white horse, doff his white hat, light up a stogie in front of the no-smoking sign. When the first dumb question from a reporter or Congressman was asked, he would growl back, Cut the crap. We are fighting a war here, Stupid.
Maj. Mark A. Smith, U.S. Army (ret.),served in Vietnam and Cambodia. He also was a Prisoner of War.
