As Iraq teeters precariously on the edge of full-scale civil war, and as the evidence accumulates that the current debacle was caused by bad planning on the part of the civilians in Washington, I find myself thinking of two exhibitions of military intelligence – one by a career soldier, and one by a soldier in a play.
The career soldier is General Colin Powell, for whom I had the honor of writing speeches for three years. In his memoirs, General Powell offers this account of a strategy session on Bosnia in 1993:
My constant, unwelcome message at all the meetings on Bosnia was simply that we should not commit military forces until we had a clear political objective … The debate exploded at one session when Madelaine Albright, our ambassador to the UN, asked me in frustration: “What’s the use of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” I thought I would have an aneurysm. American GIs were not toy soldiers to be moved around on some sort of global game board. I patiently explained that we had used our armed forces more than two dozen times in the preceding three years for war, peacekeeping, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. But in every one of those cases we had a clear goal and had matched our military commitment to that goal. As a result, we had been successful in every case. I told Ambassador Albright that the U.S. military would carry out any mission it was handed, but my advice would always be that the tough political goals had to be set first. Then we would accomplish the mission.
The other soldier is the British general, John (“Gentlemanly Johnny”) Burgoyne – a historical character who appears in The Devil’s Disciple, Bernard Shaw’s satiric play about the American Revolution. The play is set in upstate New York, just before the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, and includes this devastating exchange between the sardonic, intellectual Burgoyne (himself an amateur playwright), and Burgoyne’s plodding, unimaginative aide, Major Swindon:
BURGOYNE
Have you heard the news from Springtown?
SWINDON
Nothing special. The latest reports are satisfactory.
BURGOYNE [rising in amazement]
Satisfactory, sir! Satisfactory!! [He stares at him for a moment, and then adds, with grim intensity] I am glad you take that view of them.
SWINDON [puzzled]
Do I understand that in your opinion---
BURGOYNE
I do not express my opinion. I never stoop to that habit of profane language which unfortunately coarsens our profession. If I did, sir, perhaps I should be able to express my opinion of the news from Springtown--the news which you [severely] have apparently not heard. How soon do you get news from your supports here?--in the course of a month eh?
SWINDON [turning sulky]
I suppose the reports have been taken to you, sir, instead of to me. Is there anything serious?
BURGOYNE [taking a report from his pocket and holding it up]
Springtown's in the hands of the rebels. [He throws the report on the table.]
SWINDON [aghast]
Since yesterday!
BURGOYNE
Since two o'clock this morning. Perhaps we shall be in their hands before two o'clock to-morrow morning. Have you thought of that?
SWINDON [confidently]
As to that, General, the British soldier will give a good account of himself.
BURGOYNE [bitterly]
And therefore, I suppose, sir, the British officer need not know his business: the British soldier will get him out of all his blunders with the bayonet. In future, sir, I must ask you to be a little less generous with the blood of your men, and a little more generous with your own brains.
SWINDON
I am sorry I cannot pretend to your intellectual eminence, sir. I can only do my best, and rely on the devotion of my countrymen.
BURGOYNE [suddenly becoming suavely sarcastic]
May I ask are you writing a melodrama, Major Swindon?
SWINDON [flushing]
No, sir.
BURGOYNE
What a pity! What a pity!
It is a pity – it is a tragedy – that our soldiers in Iraq should be paying the price in blood for the blunders of the civilians in Washington, some of whom never spent a day in uniform themselves. Our men and women in the military deserve much better than that.
