Invite your attention to attached paper on lying in the Army from the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute. Authors are two War College professors, both retired Army officers and West Point graduates.
Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession
Authored by Dr. Leonard Wong, Dr. Stephen J. Gerras.
- February 17, 2015 Monograph 53 Pages PDF Free
Untruthfulness is surprisingly common in the U.S. military even though members of the profession are loath to admit it. Further, much of the deception and dishonesty that occurs in the profession of arms is actually encouraged and sanctioned by the military institution. The end result is a profession whose members often hold and propagate a false sense of integrity that prevents the profession from addressing—or even acknowledging—the duplicity and deceit throughout the formation. It takes remarkable courage and candor for leaders to admit the gritty shortcomings and embarrassing frailties of the military as an organization in order to better the military as a profession. Such a discussion, however, is both essential and necessary for the health of the military profession.
ROBERT STEELE: This is the “fact of life” about the US Government across the board, not just the US Army, that breaks my heart every single day. It is a struggle to stay sane and healthy in the face of such institutionalized corruption, corruption that is amply shared and represented by the “leadership” of the US secret intelligence and counterintelligence communities, themselves disemblers on the grandest possible scale, in constant betrayal of the public trust. There is a Business Development opportunity here, one that could start with General Vincent Stewart and the Defense Intelligence Agency — intelligence with integrity, at all four levels of analysis, with the dual objective of faithfully honoring the Constitution and serving the public while cutting 30% of the waste and creating a 450 ship Navy, a long-haul Air Force, and an air mobile Army that picks up the A-10 and the Close Air Support mission. The vendors (contractors) have been complicit for decades — as James Risen put it in his new book, Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War, abuse and lies and theft are the norm. I pray the day comes when I can apply my talents in service to the public, as part of a team that fully reflects the ethics of public service. I know there are millions of good people in government service who WANT to be right with God and Country again. I am reminded of Jack Welch praising the combination of anti-corruption legislation in the US and India — the political-economic environment got to the point that officials would contract with GE precisely to demonstrate that they were not corrupt. We are there now. We need just one agency head to decide that his integrity is worth more than “going along” with business as usual.
See Also:
Memorandum: $2 Billion Obligation Plan Centered on Defense, for a New Open Source Agency
