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Old 06-27-2011, 17:25   #14
Sigaba
Area Commander
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Southern California
Posts: 4,476
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard View Post
To think there have not always been "toxic leader" issues is naive at best - it just didn't start "under Klinton and the way he downsized the military" (which was a choice his administration made to continue the reorganization begun by the previous administration).
I'd be interested to learn how the argument that downsizing the armed forces in the post Cold War era turned into bad leadership works. (Such an argument would be more convincing were it applied to the Carter administration.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard View Post
I would argue the records of the likes of a North, Burnside, Hooker, McClellan, MacArthur, and Custer would certainly fit one or more of the traits of 'bad leadership' described by Barbara Kellerman - incompetence, rigidity, intemperance, callousness, corruption, insularity, evil - as would many others at all levels of command back through the annals of US military history.
MOO, I would add GEN W.T. Sherman to this list for his post-Civil War career. His cynicism towards politicians and his belief that military policy should be determined by warriors alone have played a deleterious impact on civil military relations to this day.
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