Monday, September 06, 2004

4 kinds of leaders

I remember reading somewhere about four kinds of staff officers. I will paraphrase what I remember, but if somebody knows the original source please let me know.

Four kinds of staff officers:

1. The hard-working, smart ones. These are the best.
2. The lazy, smart ones. These are next best.
3. The lazy, dumb ones. These are almost the worst but not quite.
4. The hard-working, dumb ones. The worst of the lot.

Why would the hard-working dumb officers be worse than the lazy ones? Because they will get SOMETHING done, and since they are dumb it will likely be the wrong thing and will work against victory on the battlefield. They will devote precious resources and commit troops to courses of action that work against success and make it harder to win, not easier. At least the lazy dumb ones won't do devote as much effort into screwing things up. The lazy smart ones will make fewer mistakes and those efforts they do make will help win. And the hard-working smart ones are best of all for obvious reasons.

I think George W. is a very determined, persistent, committed individual who thinks he is doing the right thing. He isn't evil and wants only the best for America. I don't buy into the left-wing mythos of dark conspiracies and an uncaring, heartless ogre wishing to shrink the middle-class so that he and his cronies can be even richer. I think George W. Bush wants only the best for all Americans. And he is working very hard to ensure his vision for the future will come to pass.

And I think he is a world-class dumbass. He is #4, he is working really hard and doing enormous damage to our nation in the process. He doesn't realize it, and neither do many of his supporters, but we are much worse off with him in charge. He isn't intentionally screwing up, but he sure is screwing up (WMDs, invasion, tax cuts leading to record deficits, job losses, etc. etc. etc.). He needs to go. Kerry might be #1, or #2, or #3, but he damn sure isn't #4.

We need to take this nation back. Please rejoin the American Revolution, won't you?

1 comment:

J.D. said...

Subsunk: a few points.

1) the execution of the war was not left to the military. Political ideology resulted in the military being forbidden to plan for the post-war occupation, and the result we see daily.

2) Your statement "the war must still be fought" is true NOW. Whether the war in Iraq should have been fought in the first place is an entirely different question, and the consensus at the highest ranks of the military is a flat-out no. It was always a war of choice, not of necessity. This debate still matters because the man who ordered the invasion is running for re-election and should be held responsible for his actions.

3) As far as "leave the execution of the war to those who are in charge of it" - you are terribly wrong. The military follows the orders of the elected officials who the People put in charge - the military is not in charge, the People are in charge. And they will speak this Nov. 2nd. That you conclude I support the wrong side in this ongoing American Revolution is thus quite ironic. The military fought to create this nation, and to keep the People in charge. So no I will NEVER defer that responsibility that brave men have died to give me. Neither should you. We don't have, need, or want a military dictatorship.

4) "those who get paid to do the planning for the war" predicted all along what the result would be. They were ignored. Had the President heeded the advice of military professionals such as Gen. Shinseki, Gen. Wallace, and the Army War College we wouldn't have invaded in the first place.

5) Yes I certainly do hate Bush. I have good reasons to hate him. He is ruining my Army, hurting the war on terror, has run up record deficits, and is becoming more and more a populist demogogue which puts at risk our very existence as a Republic. If this were 1777 he would be a tory. Maybe you would too. I'd be sucking it up with Gen. Washington and Von Stueben. I know this because I still am true to the ideals the Continental Army fought so hard to establish, and that our military has fought so hard to maintain.

6) thank you for telling me that you don't care how long I was in the Army or what I did there. That is very gracious of you. While you dismiss my military service to our nation as lacking in importance to you at least please take the time to remove the "I support the President and OUR TROOPS" bumper sticker from the back of your Hummer.

It is strikingly similar to the way VP Cheney praised our military at the RNC while his fat ass enjoyed deferments because he had "other priorities," or the way people at the RNC hate-fest wore purple-heart band-aids while proclaiming their love for the military. Look up "hypocrite" in the dictionary if you don't understand where I'm going with this.

I expected Going-to-Zell Miller to start screaming "Deutchland Erwache!" during his spit-filled "keynote address" that showed the RNC's true colors as a party of hatred, venom, and anti-democratic tendencies. That the name of the party is "Republican" is truly ironic.