[November 16, 2015] In the first installment of this 3-part series I proposed that the U.S. military has a leadership problem. Irrespective of how we measure leadership or determine its leader effectiveness, it has been accepted that the quality of military leadership today is in decline.
For those of us currently in the military or recently retired, this revelation will come as no surprise. We have openly spoken about it to our friends and military peers and it concerns us greatly. There are three major trends, in my opinion, that stand out as the precursors to military leadership failure and it is very relevant that these are endemic in both junior and senior leaders. We could quibble about these but there is no denying their veracity.
First and probably the most damning of indicators of our failure is the decline of honesty in our military leaders. There was a time not that long ago that we all believed and enforced the dictum – and the West Point Honor Code – that we do not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Between wartime requirements and politically-imposed administrative requirements (like sensitivity training), the list of mandatory tasks is so suffocating that it makes it literally impossible to complete all the demands. Are we lying to ourselves about our dishonesty in such a system?1
Second and not surprisingly, we don’t take proper care of the health of our active and reserve force military members or our military veterans. The Spring of 2007exposé of the treatment of wounded service members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was just the beginning.2 The discovery in 2014 of gross misconduct by civilian management at VA hospitals around the country was a breach of trust with our veterans and we have yet to see anyone held accountable or any serious improvement in their health care.3
Third and damning to our service members, they are being told from the U.S. President down through the chain of command that their sacrifice in the war on terror was a “strategic error”. It’s one thing for our politicians to be feckless and inconsistent but completely something else when military senior leaders repeat pejorative opinions as fact to our service members. Doing so diminishes the respect they have sincerely earned throughout their careers. No wonder our military personnel don’t believe that senior leaders have their back anymore.4
While these I consider the most damning of failures in leadership, I will present several more in part 3 of this series. Note that whereas the reasons for failure may be important – and I will address this – they are not as important as the fact that our military leadership is in decline. The big question is will it be on the decline as precipitous as it did at the end of the Vietnam War and what are we to do about it?
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- http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/files/1250-summary.pdf
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html
- http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/dam-begins-break-veterans-affairs-scandal-n112881
- http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0401a/copyright/iraqarmycollege.html