Generals like it this way

WAR: U.S. Army. After I learned to read, I learned than many of the best adventure stories were about war. Thus started an abiding interest in the arcane world of the military. 'Arcane' is defined as "Known or understood by only a few," which is an accurate description of the military world, but what they do not tell you, where the U.S. Army is concerned, is that they, the generals, like it this way.

If nobody understands quite what you are doing, then you are not - in practice - accountable, no matter what the Constitution says. And it also helps that most Congressmen are in awe of the generals who appear in front of them. Crisp uniforms and glittering displays of medals can have that effect even though few are awarded for actual bravery. Such is the power of image - and it is not good, especially when a nation is at war.

During wartime, it is essential that soldiers, marines, airmen and sailors be supported, but that their commanders be held closely accountable.

Those who command and those who do the actual fighting should not be confused. Not now, not ever, never! If you ever want to understand the military, you have to know that. It is one of those fundamental truths of the kind where it may be useful to tattoo it on your eyelids.

I'm a war baby (1944) so grew up surrounded by people who had served in one capacity or another in WW II. It was hard to get them to talk at first but over the years more than a few proved willing to communicate, especially when I became a temporary security guard as a student and had to put in fifteen hour nightshifts with the full timers. Many of them had seen action in the British Army. To defray boredom you talk, and I was a willing listener, and quickly learned the paradox that the more you know, the more people are willing to tell you. The campaigns I remember most vividly concerned fighting communists in Malaya, dealing with the Mau Mau in Kenya, action against Greek terrorists in Cyprus, and a strange little undeclared war known as the Indonesian Confrontation. All involved counter-terrorism. Strangely enough we talked little about facing down the Soviet Union even though that was the foremost mission of the time. It was not a shooting war.





More anon.


Victor.

Bill Gates woke me up this morning

Bill Gates of Microsoft infamy (Windows has not been the most reliable of operating systems and has caused me misery over the years) woke me up this morning.

I don't mean to suggest that, after a polite knock, he entered my bedroom with a cup of tea, toast and marmalade, and an ironed copy of 'The Times' (my mother used to start her day in roughly this manner at about 10.00am) - but merely that he was being interviewed on National Public Radio.

His point was simple. Microsoft cannot find enough qualified people to hire in the U.S. so is having to set up research establishments in India and China just to find talent - though they would, of course have made some investments in those countries anyway for straightforward commercial reasons.

His subtext was that U.S. high schools are awful academically (he did not go into their other deficiencies) and that this country is suffering from a severe educational crisis. Well, if the stability of American developed Windows over the years is anything to go by, Bill has already proved his point.

There is, in fact, wide agreement that the U.S. educational system is deeply flawed, but not only has very little been done about it (the less said about the 'No Child Left Behind Act' the better) , but the implications of high schools graduating seried ranks of inadequately educated students year after year, decade after decade - when other countries are achieving much higher standards - have not been adequately considered. On the other hand the 'dumbing down' of so many aspects of American life is self evident.

Consider what passes for news on TV: It is pre-digested, as if being fed to babies, and so short of foreign news, one has the impression here that much of the rest of the world does not exist.

Consider the competence - or lack of it - of our intelligence services. The total cost of our intelligence services is estimated to be around $40 billion and climbing but - to paraphrase Winston Churchill - never in the field of human conflict have so many spent so much to learn so little. If that does not worry you, reflect that it is your money that these inadequately educated bureaucrats are spending. If that reality does not hurt, it should.

I went to see Bill Gates in Dublin, Ireland, about ten years ago to watch him speak at the Windows 95 launch. He was on that day one of the worst speakers I have ever listened to. Nonethless, where U.S. education is concerned, I happen to think he is right. And more power to the man for trying to do something about it.


Victor.