The leadership errors of Col. Steele (III): Patton responds
The other day I said that Lightning Joe Collins, one of the best corps commanders of World War II, would have fired Col. Mike Steele, who commanded a brigade of the 101st Airborne in Iraq that committed some war crimes, in a heartbeat, long before the abuses occurred. An early firing would have served everyone ...
The other day I said that Lightning Joe Collins, one of the best corps commanders of World War II, would have fired Col. Mike Steele, who commanded a brigade of the 101st Airborne in Iraq that committed some war crimes, in a heartbeat, long before the abuses occurred. An early firing would have served everyone better, I argued, especially the soldiers involved and the Iraqis who were killed.
I found an article yesterday in which then-Maj. Daniel Bolger sharply disapproves of Collins’ swift ax. This is especially interesting to me because Bolger now is in Baghdad, commanding the 1st Cavalry Division. Back in 1991, Bolger critiqued for Military Review the swift relief of generals in World War II. He begins by quoting Patton: “Collins and Bradley are too prone to cut off heads.”
Bolger detects in Gen. Omar Bradley and his mentor, Gen. George Marshall, the origins of the “zero defects” Army of the late 20th century — and perhaps even of today. He judges Bradley to have been risk-averse and unimaginative. “One avoids losing, but one can also avoid winning by playing it safe,” Bolger writes, in a sentence that seems to me also to apply to the conduct of the Iraq war from 2003 to 2006.
bedheaded/Flickr
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
More from Foreign Policy

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose
Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy
The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now
In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet
As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.