Dakota Beacon

Every era produces its outstanding general officers to lead  their military. It is hard to conceive of the Civil War without Grant,  Sherman and Lee. Likewise, how would America have prevailed in World War II  without Eisenhower, Patton, Lemay, Nimitz, Bradley and so many others?
 
Much passes for contemporary analysis which is quite second rate. One great exception is an item written by Max Boot appearing in the  April 2013 issue of "Commentary" magazine. The article is titled "How  America Lost its Four Great Generals."
 
Max Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National  Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
 
In Boot's view, some of the brightest and most capable four-star  general officers produced during the War on Terror are David Petraeus,  Stanley McChrystal, John R. Allen and James Mattis. It would be difficult to  refute his view.
 
That America has now lost them is extremely unfortunate.  Together they reformed the thinking on how to wage modern  counterinsurgencies.  Now they are gone, pushed out by an ungrateful
political administration.
 
Few would challenge Boot's contention that Petraeus was first  among the four. "Petraeus's achievement in turning around a desperate  situation in Iraq has few parallels in the annals of counterinsurgency."
 
One of the keys to Petraeus's success was his understanding of  the Sunni Awakening in which Sunni turned against Al-Qaeda. Petraeus  supported the local Sunni sheikhs entirely. Additionally, his troops lived  among the people removing large numbers of the enemy from the population.  Detainees were kept from recruiting additional support while in custody.
 
From McChrystal's book "My Share of the Task" Boot quotes  McChrystal as summing up his tenure at JSOC [Joint Special Operations  Command], "What had been impressive but rudimentary," he wrote, "was now a  relentless counterterrorist machine."
 
Comprised of SEAL Team Six and Delta Force, McChrystal was a legend in the JSOC. He was noted for improving interrogation methods without  crossing into the realm of enhanced interrogation techniques. He gained the  upper hand over the enemy by acting instantly on new, actionable
intelligence.
 
McChrystal fell from grace with a leaked remark about Vice  President "Bite Me."
 
General Allen replaced General Petraeus in Afghanistan. As Boot  comments, "Allen is a courtly cerebral Southerner who graduated from the  Naval Academy and later became a professor and commandant of midshipmen  there--the first Marine to fill that position."
 
Allen's misfortune occurred when someone leaked to the  Washington Post that he had exchanged e-mails with Tampa, Florida, socialite Jill Kelly. After two months of investigation Allen was cleared of all suspicion. But the damage was done. He had been destined to become the next  Supreme Allied Commander-Europe. Instead, he chose to retire claiming his  wife was in bad health, but unofficially noting the lack of support from the  administration during his tribulation.
 
Finally, there is Marine General Mattis nicknamed "Mad Dog  Mattis" for his savage disposition toward the enemy or the "Warrior Monk"  acknowledging his life as a confirmed bachelor. Boot notes, "General Mattis's  political incorrectness was thought to bar further promotion. Nevertheless,  in 2007 he received his fourth star and assumed command of the Joint Forces  Command."
 
Mattis's remarks reminds one of General Patton. Boot quotes  Mattis as saying, "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap around  women for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway, so it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."
 
Mattis worked closely with Petraeus in writing the all new  "Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual" issued in 2006. In 2010 Mattis replaced Petraeus at Central Command in Florida. It has been reported  that Mattis was forced out early from his command after incurring the  displeasure of the Obama administration for his outspokenness.
 
Max Boot contends, and I fully agree, that these four generals  deserve a lot more public appreciation than they have been given. Should a  personal indiscretion, as in the case of Petraeus, McChrystal and Allen,  negate overwhelming military contributions and achievements? Now they are  gone and they will be difficult to replace.
 
We do not have an overabundance of intellectually superior general officers such that we can afford to discard these four leaders off  hand. The quality of Petraeus, McChrystal, Allen and Mattis do not come  around frequently. The loss of their institutional knowledge, their  leadership and their understanding of a complex and dangerous world will not be easily replaced.
 
 
 
Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).