How presidents should treat generals
I was checking something in Eliot Cohen’s classic Supreme Command, the best book every written about how presidents should handle generals, when I noticed this very good summary of last week’s events: Generals are, or should be, disposable. Statesman should not, of course, discard them thoughtlessly, nor should they treat them discourteously. Yet all four ...
I was checking something in Eliot Cohen's classic Supreme Command, the best book every written about how presidents should handle generals, when I noticed this very good summary of last week's events:
I was checking something in Eliot Cohen’s classic Supreme Command, the best book every written about how presidents should handle generals, when I noticed this very good summary of last week’s events:
Generals are, or should be, disposable. Statesman should not, of course, discard them thoughtlessly, nor should they treat them discourteously. Yet all four of these statesman [discussed in the book] showed themselves able to treat generals in line with Gladstone’s first requirement for success as a prime minister: ‘One must be a good butcher.’ Indeed, it was the most mild-mannered of the four, Lincoln, who relieved commanders the most frequently."
As we digest the McChrystal blowup, those are words worth keeping in mind.
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
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