Fog Of Bullshit
I went to Amazon to get the link in my previous post, and behold! Amazon thinks I might be interested in a movie called Fog of War. Someone I've never heard of has made a documentary that appears to be mainly interview footage of everybody's favorite former Secretary of Defense, Robert Strange McNamara. Let's see, why don't I need to watch this movie? Hmm, somewhere in HTML there's a tag to turn on vitriol, isn't there? No? Not implemented yet? Well, I guess I'll have to make do the old-fashioned way.
In the interests of full disclosure, let's start off with a simple statement: I fucking LOATHE Robert S. McNamara. That's a fairly strong word, but I think it accurately describes my feelings towards the man. I didn't think much about him at all until he published his book back when I was in college. Then he had the unmitigated gall to come out and say that the Viet Nam war was a mistake and he knew this at the time. However, he didn't bother to speak up or act on that knowledge in any meaningful fashion. He just resigned and went on with his life, continuing to screw over the Third World, only using the World Bank instead of the US military. Nice job, Bob. That's the way to have the courage of your convictions, you gutless prick. I guess it's just too damn bad the 58,000 troops that came home in body bags didn't have the option to resign and get other work, huh? I don't suppose the millions of Vietnamese that died during the whole fiasco had a choice like that, did they? Nope. Just good old Bobby McNamara. A whole bunch of people died because you didn't have the courage to say what you thought. Hell, one would think simple human decency would compel you to speak up when people are dying on a daily basis. Now, I will admit that even had he said something, it might not have mattered. He might have been fired, ignored, or his concerns might have been trivialized in some other fashion. Such are the vagaries of life when you are in the midst of powerful events. He still should have tried. Some crusty old Japanese philosopher said something about the use of power. The answer to misuse of power is not non-use, but right use is kind of how it goes. If you're the Secretary of Defense and think something is a mistake, time to use that power in the correct fashion and do something. Abdicating your ability does not absolve you of responsibility, numbnuts.
My second problem is somewhat larger in scope. I am tired of people who come out and try to excuse their acts long after the fact. "Well, I did some bad things, but I was younger then and with hindsight I realize those were the wrong actions." Well, it's great that you pulled your head out of your fourth point of contact after all this time, Sparky! As someone once said, the fact is the thing that remains. You did bad things. I don't generally care why you felt justified at the time. It always strikes me as a pathetic attempt to get people to think more kindly of you in your old age. Does it make you feel better late at night to offer up your mea culpa? Does it help you sleep? I sure hope so, because it's not doing a damn thing for the rest of us. This is especially true given the scale at which McNamara operated. He helped to crater US prestige and military might by getting involved in Viet Nam, and that ended up pushing large chunks of Southeast Asia under disastrous governments. All he can offer up for that is a "Gee, I knew better but was a wuss." Nice. Way to accept the consequences of your inaction, Bobby boy. You're gonna have to work a lot harder to rehabilitate your image, you spineless fuck.
Finally, it is a betrayal of all who serve under you to ask them to do something you do not believe is a good idea. You have an obligation to the people who work for you in any situation to treat them fairly and take care of them. Loyalty and respect work two ways: up and down. You owe loyalty and respect to your subordinates if you expect any in return. Sometimes, this means you speak out when you think something is going to adversely affect them. You go to bat for your people if you think they're going to get screwed. This obligation becomes all the more important when you are asking people to die for you. You don't keep your misgivings to yourself because to air them might cause some unspecified "problem" or make you look bad. That McNamara could not or would not do this tells me all I need to know about his "leadership": he has none.
So I really don't have any need to listen to McNamara's weak attempts at self-justification after the fact. The hard, central truth is people died because of his failures of character and leadership. Everything else is details. The details may be interesting in an historic context, but they won't change the facts.
In the interests of full disclosure, let's start off with a simple statement: I fucking LOATHE Robert S. McNamara. That's a fairly strong word, but I think it accurately describes my feelings towards the man. I didn't think much about him at all until he published his book back when I was in college. Then he had the unmitigated gall to come out and say that the Viet Nam war was a mistake and he knew this at the time. However, he didn't bother to speak up or act on that knowledge in any meaningful fashion. He just resigned and went on with his life, continuing to screw over the Third World, only using the World Bank instead of the US military. Nice job, Bob. That's the way to have the courage of your convictions, you gutless prick. I guess it's just too damn bad the 58,000 troops that came home in body bags didn't have the option to resign and get other work, huh? I don't suppose the millions of Vietnamese that died during the whole fiasco had a choice like that, did they? Nope. Just good old Bobby McNamara. A whole bunch of people died because you didn't have the courage to say what you thought. Hell, one would think simple human decency would compel you to speak up when people are dying on a daily basis. Now, I will admit that even had he said something, it might not have mattered. He might have been fired, ignored, or his concerns might have been trivialized in some other fashion. Such are the vagaries of life when you are in the midst of powerful events. He still should have tried. Some crusty old Japanese philosopher said something about the use of power. The answer to misuse of power is not non-use, but right use is kind of how it goes. If you're the Secretary of Defense and think something is a mistake, time to use that power in the correct fashion and do something. Abdicating your ability does not absolve you of responsibility, numbnuts.
My second problem is somewhat larger in scope. I am tired of people who come out and try to excuse their acts long after the fact. "Well, I did some bad things, but I was younger then and with hindsight I realize those were the wrong actions." Well, it's great that you pulled your head out of your fourth point of contact after all this time, Sparky! As someone once said, the fact is the thing that remains. You did bad things. I don't generally care why you felt justified at the time. It always strikes me as a pathetic attempt to get people to think more kindly of you in your old age. Does it make you feel better late at night to offer up your mea culpa? Does it help you sleep? I sure hope so, because it's not doing a damn thing for the rest of us. This is especially true given the scale at which McNamara operated. He helped to crater US prestige and military might by getting involved in Viet Nam, and that ended up pushing large chunks of Southeast Asia under disastrous governments. All he can offer up for that is a "Gee, I knew better but was a wuss." Nice. Way to accept the consequences of your inaction, Bobby boy. You're gonna have to work a lot harder to rehabilitate your image, you spineless fuck.
Finally, it is a betrayal of all who serve under you to ask them to do something you do not believe is a good idea. You have an obligation to the people who work for you in any situation to treat them fairly and take care of them. Loyalty and respect work two ways: up and down. You owe loyalty and respect to your subordinates if you expect any in return. Sometimes, this means you speak out when you think something is going to adversely affect them. You go to bat for your people if you think they're going to get screwed. This obligation becomes all the more important when you are asking people to die for you. You don't keep your misgivings to yourself because to air them might cause some unspecified "problem" or make you look bad. That McNamara could not or would not do this tells me all I need to know about his "leadership": he has none.
So I really don't have any need to listen to McNamara's weak attempts at self-justification after the fact. The hard, central truth is people died because of his failures of character and leadership. Everything else is details. The details may be interesting in an historic context, but they won't change the facts.
posted by T at 4:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home