[Knalus]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I never took it as disrespect. And your right, the civilian body dictates policy to the military (more often to disasterous results then positive ones) however, I have always mandated that anyone that wants to lead a country, or be thought of as commander in chief should have some time in uniform, because more often or not the people in civilian authority have no idea of

1) The capabilities of the military that they command. Previous governments were famous for this in sending out troops to as many peace keeping missions as they could without a thought to equipment, training, manpower or rest. When the Canadian Forces sent CF-18's to Iraq for the first gulf war they were shocked that they didn't have proper data link up with other allied forces, and they were even more shocked when they couldn't use a lot of the newer NATO weapons on their planes.

2) A lot of time civilian leaders don't understand the cost of war and believe that its another policy arrow to use in international relations. A smart soldier doesn't really want to go to war unless its absolutely required, nobody wants to kill another dumb ass 18 year old kid who joined his countries military because he thought the uniform was groovy.

3) A experience leader can seperate the BS from the truth when it comes to the advice given by their defense staff.

Military Dictatorships are rarely true military dictatorships. We've seen to many failed military men like wackonuts in Libya, Amin and others who were really failed soldiers first but through fortune seized power. Most of the most frightening dictatorships in recent history have been civilian based or politically based. Kim never wore the uniform, nor did Hussein, Stalin was never a military man nor was Lenin as examples, but they all yeilded tremendous power over their nations military.

I agree. It's one thing to tell the military what to do, it's another all together to tell them how - that just leads to a Gong Show.