General Charles H. Jacoby, Jr. is the Senior Vice Chairman for Capitol Peak Asset Management Company. He also serves as the Distinguished Chair of the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy at West Point....
Read MoreBy Von Clausewitz (a pseudonym for a military person that desires anonymity)
On operational command and civil-military relations:
‘I spend a great deal of time imprisoned in my office, captive to the demands of Canberra. As much as possible I shield the unit commanders in Afghanistan from the deadening touch of Defence bureaucrats and political wrangling, but not always successfully. I tear my hair out in frustration when I am second-guessed, undermined or contradicted by staff officers half a world away; sometimes I get actual help. I have a bit of a blue with my boss, a turf war; we patch it up and get on with it’.
From Exit Wounds by Major General (ret) John Cantwell (Australian Army)
On hope as a course of action
‘It was all very well hoping confidently and optimistically that the grand endeavour would be smiled upon by a benevolent deity, but the battle-hardened old-timers taught us that you shouldn’t mix hope and soldiering’.
From Kandak by Patrick Hennessey
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