delanceyplace.com 07/20/05 - exodus of officers

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In today's excerpt - from the late writer Robert Lynd and then from Lucian K. Truscott IV, retired US Army Officer and West Point graduate, commenting on his concern regarding the current Iraqi war:

"The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions."

Robert Lynd, writer (1879-1949), excerpt submitted by a reader to A Word A Day, July 15, 2005

"My class, that of 1969, set a record with more than 50 percent resigning within a few years of completing the service commitment. (My father's class, 1945, the one that 'missed' World War II, was considered to be the previous record-holder with about 25 percent resigning before they reached the 20 years of service entitling them to full retirement benefits.)

"And now, from what I've heard from friends still in the military and during the two years I spent reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan, it seems we may be on the verge of a similar exodus of officers. The annual resignation rate of Army lieutenants and captains rose to 9 percent last year, the highest since before the Sept. 11 attacks. And in May, The Los Angeles Times reported on 'an undercurrent of discontent within the Army's young officer corps that the Pentagon's statistics do not yet capture'...

"The problem the Army created in Vietnam has never really been solved. If you keep faith with soldiers and tell them the truth, even when it threatens their beliefs, you run the risk of losing them. But if you peddle cleverly manipulated talking points to people who trust you not to lie you won't merely lose them, you'll break their hearts."