By guest blogger Ernest M. Kennedy III [See Biography]
[March 4, 2015] Someone once said that to be prepared for war is the most effective way of preserving the peace; smart. If we study lessons of war from philosophers or from political leaders who warn us about war, a few things stand out; war is bad, war solves little, it only leads to senseless death, pain, and destruction, and war is profoundly dehumanizing. Hogwash! While we’re dreaming (or hallucinating) about a perfect utopia, we had better learn some lessons from “war” that just might turn the intellectual elite on their heads. Like the 1940 Disney movie Fantasia where the movie reverses the traditional formula by serving and matching the music, the lessons of war are not always straight forward.
Imagine a world without a Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or Kim Il Sung who collectively were responsible for the death of 120 million people. You can’t? And that is where I begin with the first new leadership lesson from war. War is nasty and brutish but it delivers results. Despite what our feelings want us to believe, good leadership means standing up to bullies and taking risks to stop evil and sometimes that means war. As a kid we learned particular lessons the hard way when we stood between a bully and the wimpy kid he was picking on; we were sometimes knocked down too. If you are knocked down we knew to get right back up. Those who side with evil will get the message that they can only go so far. Those are the results that are good.
The second lesson. Don’t declare success (or victory) too soon. That may seem an obvious point but historically that very action is so common as to make it comic in a demented sort of way. Warfare may have changed since the Middle Ages such as technological advances, tactical innovations, and changing cultures, but mankind has not. Our desire to never lose a fight and lose face is so strong (terribly strong) that reality can be denied. Kim Il Sung declared victory in the Korean War despite the assistance of China and yet his armies were destroyed and his strategic goals denied (unification of Korea under communist rule). We say, never let the cart get ahead of the horse.
The third lesson. Crush the enemy overwhelmingly or, better yet, win before a shot is even fired. In war, there is no such thing as proportional force on even terms. Winning is the only option and to do so means you have to be so strong in force and will to win that no sane leader will contest your strength; they will lose not just a war but their life as well. It follows that an enemy’s surrender must be unconditional. War is a struggle of wills among the leaders and our will must be so dominant and the consequences so terrible that the only viable course is to end it on our terms.
You cannot write off men who took their country to war or blame war on a political-military machine behind their actions that cost so many lives. War helped bring an end to some of the ideology that was a convenient cloak in which they wrapped themselves. War helped destroy some (a fascist Hitler) and confined some (communist Stalin, Mao, & Pol Pot, & Il Sung) to lessen what potential destruction they could have wrought unless good men stood in their way.
Everything else is simply the art of negotiation. Wars should be for only one reason; to destroy evil. If you cannot define evil, see it when it occurs, prepare for it, and be willing to take it head-on, then you as a leader are more dangerous than the evil itself.
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Really good article. Thanks for your insights.
War is a human condition. We may try to stop it but often it is necessary to free people from slavery, brutal dictatorships, despots, and massacres. Propagating war under these conditions is the right thing to do. Failing to do so is the worst of immorality.
What happened to the Vietnam War veterans was and is a disgrace. We will always remember those who dishonored them.