Kansas City News Blog

While I certainly can't speak for my Commanding General, I will propose that there is another possible reason that General Caldwell answered the way he did besides the conclusion that the author of this aticle proposes. At first glance his question “Should the war have been fought?” seems like a simple one, but in actuality is an infinitely complex question whose answer largely depends upon on your own priority of values. Many in the faculty at CGSC, and even more of the students, are combat veterans with recent experience in Iraq, and have had highly personal experiences with one aspect of the war in specific locations. The task for both the instructors and the students at CGSC is to share those multiple experiences and lessons learned in order to try and synthesize a more comprehensive view of what has gone right and what has gone wrong in Iraq, realizing that we will never achieve a complete picture. To offer a simple answer to the question would inaccurately suggest that we could collect and weigh all of the military, economic, diplomatic, humanitarian, and moral factors involved in the war – from all sides - and apply some kind of absolute value system to determine an answer. We often wish for (and sometimes resort to) simple, absolute answers to confirm our own beliefs and refute those who disagree with us. The truth is that such simple answers do not exist, and any answer (or philosophy, theology, etc) that neatly fits on a bumper sticker is probably not a very useful one to guide your infinitely complex life with.

Another truth is that we in the military do owe allegiance to our constitutionally appointed superiors in accordance to the oaths we all take. This does not absolve us from the responsibility of giving those superiors the best possible military advice that we can, nor does it relieve us from letting our civilian leadership know about the risks associated with the courses of action that they propose, and even challenging them to consider alternatives. However, once our leadership makes a decision, we are bound to support it as best as we are able, and must subvert our individual opinions to follow the leaders the American People have chosen for us. If we decide to go outside of this system, we risk the very constitutional order that we are sworn to defend, and lose our future ability to good things from inside the system to mitigate the effects of those decisions that we wish had been better ones. While some occasionally do choose to “fall on their swords” (Major General Billy Mitchell comes immediately to this Airmen’s mind, who only gained his present rank posthumously in 2004), it is something any military member can do only once, and requires that individual to be absolutely sure that they are right and the rest of the entire institution is wrong. Again, there are seldom cases this clear cut.

So, as the author seemingly proposes, are our military officers restricted from fully expressing their opinions? Yes and no. There are ways within the system that we can analyze our profession and seek changes without being disloyal to our appointed leaders, and the academic environment of CGSC encourages its students to take a hard look at what happened leading up to and during Operation Iraqi Freedom. We will take these lessons in order to document and internalize the positives, and to avoid repeating our mistakes. But will we assume that we have the right answers, and announce them to the press without sending those inputs to others who can add their perspectives to ours and improve our overall lessons learned? Not if we’re intellectually honest about our own capabilities and limitations to discern such an answer. So if we in the military cannot give you a simple answer to this question, it does not necessarily mean that we’re afraid to make the current administration look bad, that we’re trying to dodge you, or that we’re not actively asking this question ourselves. It more likely means that we realize that we can’t give you an answer that satisfies all of the infinite number of issues wrapped up in your seemly simple - but actually infinitely complex - question. Ask us more specific and tangible questions about what went well and what we’ll do better next time, and we’ll probably have a lot more to say.

Respectfully,

Major Dave Lyle, USAF
CGSC student