Sex and the Secretary of Defense

It is interesting to note that at a time when the situation in Iraq has clearly deteriorated still further, the Secretary of Defense has chosen to exercise his very considerable authority by relieving four star General Kevin P. Byrnes as commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command (better known as TRADOC). The actual order was given by the Army Chief of Staff, General Peter Schoomaker.

Outstanding! At last Rumsfeld is doing something about the incompetence of some of the senior generals in Iraq, I hear you cry.

I’m afraid not. TRADOC is headquartered in Fort Monroe, Virginia, USA, and General Byrnes has been relieved for “Unspecified sexual misconduct” according to an AP report. This catch-all phrase does not, apparently mean that he has slept with a sheep, or a goat or a camel – which might indeed deserve a mild reprimand if carried out publicly in full uniform – but merely that he has, so other reports say, merely been having an affair with a woman other than his wife.

I didn’t know any Army general had that much initiative, I hear you say. But what has sexual adventuring got to do with the US Army? Does the Army claim the right to police a soldier’s sexual morality? You’ve got to be kidding me!

Sad to say, I’m not kidding you. The Army really does have the authority to police the sexual activities of its soldiers in uniform – even if carried out in the privacy of the bedroom; and even if the individuals concerned are actually buck naked.

The tragic aspect of all this is that at a time when the Army has rarely had a worse crop of generals, command incompetence no longer seems to be grounds for dismissal – whereas sexual competence (not that I have any inside information on General Byrnes’ performance as a sexual athlete) is. In fact the situation it is worse than that. So far gross incompetence, criminal activity and in some cases, cowardice in the face of the enemy in Iraq, has mainly resulted in the promotion of the general officers concerned.

Secretary Rumsfeld knows full well that he is singularly ill served by the majority of the current Army General Officer Corps but instead of thinning out the ranks of these people and promoting talent from lower levels – as was done most memorably by General Marshall prior to World War II - he has chosen to adopt the role of a Pontius Pilate and to wash his hands of his responsibilities in the interests of avoiding political controversy.

The price of Secretary Rumsfeld’s negligence and of poor Army leadership is being paid in blood by American soldiers and in money by the American people; and it is also being paid by the people of Iraq who we purportedly invaded to save from a murderous dictator, but now seem to be killing in very large numbers or converting into future terrorists.

The Secretary should worry less about the sexual antics of his generals and much more about whether they are of adequate caliber to lead. Or perhaps, in the light of several years of fiasco, the average American voter should look higher up the chain off command than mere generals and question whether we have the right people in charge at the very top.

It’s an eternal truth: Leadership matters.