[Ailist] Changing Military Perspective

Mon Jun 29 16:39:06 MDT 2009

I disagree and I do not think I am labelling groups of people as being bad.  Rather, I am suggesting that it is behaviour of politicians and business people; those who define policy and take advantage of that policy that needs to be addressed.  Behaviour of some not a collective group.  Politicians decide to go to war and they also define the enemy.  Soldiers are deployed to deal with the commitment made by politicians.  It is not a matter of blame.  Rather, it is cause and effect.

To have a viable defence capability it is necessary to have soldiers who are trained to do a certain job.  Their deployment as a miltiary force is a last resort and should not be entered into lightly.  If the military ceases doing the job of the military then it ceases to be the military.  More seriously though, the nation that denudes itself of a defence capability leaves itself vulnerable to bandits, nations and other hostile elements who/that choose to attack its sovereignty.

Wishful thinking is not going to make bad people disappear.  Consider Chamberlain's determination to not have approproate defence capability in the pre WWII United Kingdom and the way Hitler took advantage of the opportunity created by that negligence.

Positive change is certainly required.  Politicians need to understand appropriate escalation of force and the damage that can be caused by a military force.  Business people need to realise that they do not have the right to profit from war.  Soldiers and the army running amok is a symptom (effect) of their inappropriate deployment (cause) by those who make the decision to deploy them (generals do not make that sort of decision.  Rather, they craft the strategies and employ others to employ tactices to take the soldiers to do the politicians' business).

Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
Graduate School of Business
my "Assessment of Quality Systems with Positioning Theory" 
now in a googe book - see link at http://intergon.net
>>> Cheri Torres <cheri.torres at gmail.com> 29/06/09 11:19 PM >>>
It is a timeless tradition to find fault with those in power...or to find
fault with anyone not agreeing with us or seeing through our eyes. What I
appreciate about AI is that it encourages us to stop the fault-finding and
finger pointing and invite diverse stories of success into the dialogue. To
look for positive deviance and spotlight it. I love it when a story emerges
that truly invites us to change the paradigm, which I think the military is
doing. In my opinion, it is a HUGE shift to begin putting energy, effort and
military power on "what we want to happen" instead of on "eliminating what
we don't want to happen."  What could be more AI!
Perhaps we can make more room for those in power to change by uplifting
significant positive change and action and applauding those who support such
change.  This is really the power of AI--to find these stories and fan them.
 Tell more and more of them. Somewhere there is a tipping point.  I think we
are likely to reach that point more rapidly if we shine the light on people
in power who are engaged in positive action rather than continuing to label
large groups of people as 'bad'.

Cheri

On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 6:31 PM, Lionel Boxer <lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au>wrote:

> Politicians and businesspeople have always started war.  In the distant
> past the policiticans tended to be kings and they tended to lead their
> soldiers into battle.  These days they have no involvement beyond deciding
> to deploy troops.
>
> Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
> Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
> Graduate School of Business
> my "Assessment of Quality Systems with Positioning Theory"
> now in a googe book - see link at http://intergon.net
> >>> <Capela2 at aol.com> 29/06/09 7:18 AM >>>
> As a father whose son is scheduled to be deployed next week to Afghanistan
> I found the conversation interesting. I think the army is making a
> concerted  effort to reduce the chance of killing innocent lives which is
> good.
> Unfortunately when you are confronted with making a decision whether to
> shoot
> or  not to save your life it can be difficult at times. The other problem
> is
> this  war is more difficult when the enemy has no difficulty using
> innocents
> to  protect themselves.
>
> Which goes to the other point if you talk to a soldier he or she would
> probably say war is a last resort unfortunately politicians are often the
> ones
> making the decisions not fighting the battle.
>
> Stan Capela
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-- 
Cheri B. Torres, Ph.D.

Asheville, NC
828-225-5088

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