If you have not yet done so, please read these. These two articles are just two of the pebbles Lt Colonel Davis has tossed off the cliff. They might start an avalanche.
- “Truth, lies and Afghanistan – How military leaders have let us down“, Daniel L. Davis (Lt Colonel, US Army), Armed Forces Journal, February 2012
- “Important news about our war in Afghanistan“, New York Times, 6 February 2012
A historical analogy is the briefing Lt. Colonel John Paul Vann (US Army) gave to the senior Army leadership in Washington during June and July 1963, with statistical evidence proving that the military’s reporting about the Vietnam War was incorrect. It was suppressed, although some details slowly leaked into the press through a few brave journalists (as rare then as now). Let’s see if the actions of this brave man produce larger results than those of Vann.
Thank you Lt. Col. Davis for having the conjones to tell your story. Polish up your resume and I hope you sleep better than those that are more concerned with their personal and organizational goals than the best interest of the men & women and country they should be serving.
He made the right choice at the “to be or to do” fork.
I read an account of a briefing circa 1965 given at the Army War College in which the speaker announced that the war had been lost already. The audience was not happy.
A few years later he was invited back and gave a similar but not so grim talk. An audience member who had been at both asked him why he had toned it down. “Well I barely made it out of here last time”. “Yeah but we’ve all been there now”.
Thank you, Lt. Col. Davis.