Re: Responsible

A commander in chief cannot take as an excuse for his mistakes in warfare an order given by his minister or his sovereign, when the person giving the order is absent from the field of operations and is imperfectly aware or wholly unaware of the latest state of affairs. It follows that any commander in chief who undertakes to carry out a plan which he considers defectives is at fault; he must put forward his reasons, insist on the plan being changed, and finally tender his resignation rather than be the instrument of his army's downfall.

Napoleon, Military Matters and Thoughts (Maxim LXXII)

Of course, that might kill your career...

UPDATE: More here with this nice quote from Victor Davis Hanson in Update 2:

... there is dismal pattern: a mediocre functionary keeps quiet about the mess around him, muddles through, senses that things aren't going right, finds himself on the losing end of political infighting, is forced out or quits, seethes that his genius wasn't recognized, takes no responsibility for his own failures, worries he might be scape-goated, and at last senses that either a New York publisher or the anti-war Left, or both, will be willing to offer him cash or notoriety - but only if he serves their needs by trashing his former colleagues in a manner he never would while on the job.

Responsible for everything my unit does or fails to do

Those of us who have been privileged to hold command in the US Armed Forces know the buck stops with us. If we have been very successful it is because of the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, or Airmen working for us. If we were not so successful it was frequently because we failed to provide guidance, direction, and motivation.

Occasionally of course one is saddled with a set of circumstances that make any level of success difficult at best, but in the culture of the US Armed Forces one "sucks that up" and you do not go around after the fact blaming these external factors. The Company Commander that blamed his Battalion Commander, the Battalion Commander that blamed his Brigade Commander, even if it was true, might get some sympathy from his peers, but in the end will be held responsible for how his unit did.

So it bothers me that retired Senior Officers are running around pointing fingers at other people for the challenges they faced. If their subordinate commanders had done the same thing, they would have been run out of their officer.

Activities like this give more weight to LTC Yingling's article from last May.

This may be doing more to undermine the morale of the Officer Corps than long deployments.