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Is It Best to Stay In and Speak Up or Get Out and Speak Up |
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Leadership for Intelligence Professionals |
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Learn to Lead learntolead@earthlink.net |
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Is it Best to Stay In and Speak Up or Get Out and Speak Up? General Harold Johnson, Army Chief of Staff from 1964-1968, was so opposed by President Johnson's refusal to call up the reserves for the war in Vietnam and so discouraged by the affect it was having on the Army that he considered resigning. But, he had earlier consulted General Omar Bradley about resigning and Bradley told him, If you resign you’re going to be a disgruntled general, you’ll be a headline for one day, and then you'll be forgotten. What you do is stay and fight your battle and you continue to fight it to the best of your ability inside. Most recently, however, as former Lieutenant Colonel and columnist Ralph Peters tells it staying in doesn’t work, either you get fired or fail to speak out. General Eric Shinseki, an honorable soldier, told the truth when asked how many troops an occupation of When Gen. Tommy Franks failed to stand up to Rumsfeld and his technology driven deputies over professional issues, as we prepared for war….even when Franks appeared to lose all interest in his mission, no fellow general called for his removal. When Gen. Ricardo Sanchez-a deer caught in the headlights of history-made one fateful blunder after another as our senior commander in On the other hand, getting out and speaking out, seems to have little effect. When a half-dozen retired generals belatedly criticized Rumsfeld’s ghastly management of the war in 2006, the mass of generals closed ranks against them. It was fine for retired generals to do PR for defense contractors, but when a few spoke out against a disastrous policy , they were ostracized. In short: The generals’ greatest shortcoming, though is that they failed in their duty to inform decision-makers as to what war means and requires, to give honest advice-and keep on giving it, even at the cost of their careers. Sources -Louis Sorley , “Reserve Components: Looking Back to Look Ahead” in Joint Forces Quarterly, issue thirty six. -Ralph Peters, “General Failure” in USAToday July 24, 2007. |
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Think-Live Leadership |
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