3rd Horseman said:
I think this quote will some it up nice
Gen Mack disobeyed UN orders because he had to to solve problems it was the right thing to do and he was successful
Gen D would not disobey his orders and he failed.
I believe that you are correct. I have met many a "fine leader and instructor" throughout my years on various courses, who simply fail in that leadership capacity when it comes time to put it to 'practical use' in the field. Excellent instructors, when going by the SOPs and the lesson plans, but bad field soldiers when actual circumstances on the ground laid their best taught class-room lecture on the ground. Adapt and overcome. Some people have that ability, some do not.
Those that Command us mere soldiers in times of strife, require not only the ability to maintain order and discipline in a controlled enviornment such as a school, but MUST posess a demonstrated ability to make life-saving Command decisions based on an ever changing operational enviornment and conflicting priorities. MGen MacKenzie excelled in this department and therefore his success in Bosnia. If one chooses to abandon his soldier's to their ill-gotten fate (ie sacrifice them), and to himself seems to be able to justify such a decision, I wonder how long their reign will last.
It is not the job of a Commander to sacrifice his soldier's lives for any means, but rather it is to strive to win the battle with as little wasteful death to us 'expendable' troops as possible. If I am to die, it had better be for a really good and just reason. And it had better be with a Commander who is not afraid to make those command decisions based on real-time on the ground circumstances, who would also risk his life for me. Respect begets respect. I had better not be for a Commander who is following the wishes of his superiors at the UN who have already evidenced a complete lack of understanding of the ground situation and refused to do anything about it. RD was fully aware of the lack of interest and action by many nations and UNHQ at this point in time, and despite his best efforts to convince them of what he believed (and, as it came to pass, actually did) was about to occur. This is when RD could have become an exceptional Commander, he should have removed his politico hat and placed on his soldier hat, and rounded up his boys and told the UN exactly what to do with their mission and where to do it, placed his soldier's into a defensive posture and demanded the proper resources that were required to accomplish the mission. And if he needed to fight his way to this secure enviornement , so be it. Now that probably would have drawn some attention to the Rwandan matter. In that, he failed, and 10 soldier's died needlessly.
Now, for those who would profess to tell me that it is my duty to give up my life, you would be correct. It is also the job of the Commander to ensure that someone is covering my *** if need be and that when I need assistance I get it, not that I be abandoned to my fate. They had better at least make the attempt. That is their duty to me. He failed to ensure that the Belgian's butts were covered, he failed to adequately protect his own personnel and he failed to attempt to rescue them. If all Commander's simply abandoned soldier's to their fate without back-up, support and without attempting to defend them, we'd have millions of needlessly buried men throughout Europe who were simply sacrificed (in order to save/free millions), so that their Commander's could march on to accomplish the mission in Paris, Berlin etc etc. If that was truly the object, what soldier's would be left at the end of it? I am proud to say that the vast majority of our Commander's from the Great Wars era had much more sense than this, thus the Wars were won, with much loss of life, but with purpose. Those commander's from that era who willingly sacrificed soldier's lives needlessly, or who failed to make appropraite command decisions in the interest of the mission AND their soldiers usually ended up paying dearly for it, unlike RD, who seems to have been handsomly paid for it. I can just imagine the WWII era Commander who failed to resupply or re-inforce a platoon under attack with the justification of "no...we must leave them to their fate and march onward to XXX as that is our objective" I wonder how many steps did he get?