Blasting Buffoonery

[babylonsister]

http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,134593,00.html?wh=wh

Blasting Buffoonery
David Danelo | May 04, 2007

Last week, an active-duty Army lieutenant colonel did an amazing thing: he publicly castigated an entire group of serving officers for their collective leadership failures. "As matters stand now," wrote Lt. Col. Paul Yingling in the Armed Forces Journal, "a private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war."

In and of themselves, Yingling's remarks were not unique. They mirror the sentiment of thousands of military personnel who have served in Iraq. Yingling later commented that his remarks received "almost universal approval" among enlisted men, company-grade officers, and his own peers.

But in professional military circles, the article — which begins with a quote about officers amusing themselves with "God knows what buffooneries" — could be the equivalent of a suicide bomb. Yingling's willingness to take his critique public was a bold move that some say could cross the line of insubordination.

"He might get sent to Adak, Alaska for the rest of his career," commented one military officer in an online discussion forum for national security professionals. Adak is a remote outpost that is not seen in the Army as a career-enhancing duty station.

Although professional critiques are common in service-specific publications like the Armed Forces Journal, Naval Institute Proceedings, or the Marine Corps Gazette, Yingling's broadside was noteworthy. Effectively, Yingling said that Generals Tommy Franks, Richard Myers, and Peter Pace — and others like them—were the moral equivalent of failed leaders like Civil War-era general George McClellan, whom Lincoln fired after his battlefield missteps.

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[Phredicles]

1. Recommended - Col. Yingling has uncommon courage.