General Counseling

Understand that I am writing this from a position of having a lot of personal relationships with a lot of past and present Army Generals. I was part of a very small group of people who ran the General Officer professional education program for the last three years before I retired. Some of my peers and direct supervisors are currently Generals. Many of my former bosses are retired Generals. I was the Aide de Camp for a three-star General. I consider many of these men and women as friends. I am in NO WAY lumping all Generals into the same group. Far from it.

I have written about Army Generals in the past. I’ve written about how the promotion system forces them to become political because politicians approve officers to become Generals and to continue to be promoted within the General Officer ranks. I’ve written about how we have too many Generals, but reducing the number of Generals isn’t a solo solution to cutting bureaucracy. I am not afraid to speak out about Generals and Admirals in our military.

The Generals, though, are bound by a cultural code against speaking out in criticism of one another that makes their public criticism of politicians disingenuous. And that trend of speaking out publicly against politicians is growing. Active or retired, you will almost NEVER hear one general talk poorly about another. No matter the circumstances, no matter the conduct or quality of the officer, they don’t speak publicly about another flag officer.

I will say with 100% confidence that in private they do absolutely talk shit about each other. I have heard some professional and unprofessional critiques, criticisms, and rants from one General about another one. In private and in confidence. They know who sucks and who doesn’t. They know who is worth a shit and who isn’t. They know who deserves to be wearing stars and who doesn’t. They all know, but they never say it in public.

Like I said, it is a cultural code. Like the unwritten rules of baseball. Everyone knows without saying it. You just don’t. For a long time, I appreciated that level of professionalism and the reluctance to disparage another officer publicly. It was polite and gentlemanly, and I thought it was a good image.

Recently, more and more retired Generals have been speaking out against the administration, and it has made me reconsider how genuine they are. And when I say administration, I mean the White House. And when I mean the White House, I mean any President and not just the current one.

There have always been murmurings from the population of Generals about politicians. General MacArthur was certainly not the first but was one of the most public. President Truman later said he fired MacArthur not because he was incompetent as an officer but because he wouldn’t respect the President. That’s me paraphrasing. There have been plenty of other since then, including the 2005 group of active and retired Generals that openly criticized the Administration and the Iraq War. Retired Generals Zinni, Odom, and Sanchez were part of that bunch. More recently we have had Generals Milley and Mattis criticizing President Trump.

Do you know what we haven’t seen? Generals criticizing Generals. They have slowly been elevating their public criticism of politicians but almost never hold themselves accountable as a population for any wrongdoing.

Think about it. Have you EVER heard that in public? In all the times you’ve seen Generals, retired or active, speaking on the news about policy or about politics or about politicians…. have you EVER seen a General criticize another General? Ever? Outside of a few CRIMINAL cases like former Brigadier General Sinclair, it never happens.

Off the top of my head, I can name probably a half dozen multi-star Generals that have been FIRED for misconduct. I can name another dozen who have been investigated and quietly had their career ended without any fanfare. Not a single comment from the population of Generals about any of these cases to my recollection.

So why are all these retired and active Generals going after administrations but not holding each other individually accountable? Fort Hood-Cavazos-Hood (whatever name it is this week) has been the murder and sexual assault capital of the Army for a solid decade or longer. I have NEVER seen a retired or active General criticizing a single General from that installation and the absolute shitshow of a climate there. They will happily go after the administration for the naming and renaming, but they won’t say a word about the negligence of the current and former commanders of that installation.

The barracks on Fort Bragg have been horrible for a long time. Not one General speaking out. There have been more than a few cases of Special Forces soldiers KILLING each other in various cases both home and overseas and nothing from any of the Generals questioning other Generals. Will the Army do investigations? Yes. Will the institution hold people accountable? Sometimes. Will retired Generals speak about it publicly? Never.

It is very easy to dispel their silence for all the reasons I stated earlier: professional, polite, gentlemanly.

But if they won’t speak publicly about each other for those reasons, why are they doing it regarding politicians? Why is it different regarding the President who is the Commander in Chief? What about the Secretary of Defense who is the senior official in Department of Defense and second in the Chain of Command behind the President?

Why do Generals give other Generals a public pass by staying quiet, but not politicians? I mean, don’t you think things would improve across the board if a retired General stepped in and said, “General so-and-so needs to get off his ass and fix this.” Especially if they are speaking from a position of KNOWING.

Some people will say it is about mutual respect. Generals respect each other, so they don’t out each other in public. Yeah, no they don’t. I’ve heard it in private. Mutual respect isn’t there in many cases. Ask anyone who has been in the “inner circle” of a General and, without naming names, they will tell you how much they talk shit about each other.

Some will say it is about access. They can access each other and have private discussions but can’t access politicians so they take it public. I don’t buy that either. They certainly will shun each other and cut each other from “the team” but they don’t often call each other personally to offer coaching or criticism…. unless they have an already established personal and trusted relationship.

Some will say it is about protecting themselves. If you openly criticize another General, your own skeletons may come flying out of the closet. And in that small population, there are people who know all the skeletons.

Some will say it is about preserving their own ego. I have seen former commanders from both Iraq AND Afghanistan openly criticize the way those wars were run with little or no acknowledgement to how they personally played a role in those failed operations. I literally listened to a retired General in 2015 talk about Afghanistan and how bad the current situation was, without ever acknowledging he had been a multi-star commander there less than six years before and taking ZERO responsibility for his part in it. There were multiple active-duty Generals in the room, and no one said shit.

I don’t know if I honestly have an answer to this one. I can say I would love to see it happen, even once. I would love to see a retired General on television say, “Yeah, I knew that guy well on active duty. He was incompetent then and doesn’t know what he is talking about now.”

Listen, this is FAR from a criticism of all the Generals out there. The VAST majority don’t say a damn word politically, even when asked. They continue to honor that culture within the General Officer community and keep their personal politics as quiet as they do their criticism of other Generals. I respect that. I really do.

For that small population of Generals that DO choose to openly criticize politicians, you might want to look to your left and right and then take a look inward at the organizations you led and the leaders you trained. Take an honest look. If you aren’t willing to criticize yourself, your peers, and the rest of the Generals out there… openly and in public… then you might want to ask yourself why you would do it to a politician.

Because what is going on now isn’t working. It isn’t getting barracks fixed. It isn’t stopping sexual assaults. It isn’t stopping Soldier on Soldier violence. It isn’t stopping shitty command climates at any level. The honorable and quiet approach isn’t working.

I would MUCH rather see these retired Generals who criticize politicians put that public energy toward fixing the problems in the Army they left behind, even if it means publicly criticizing another General.

Every once in a while, I think they could all use some General Counseling.