The road to Iraq begins at West Point
Greetings from the United States Military Academy, or West Point, where I had the great honor to speak to the graduating class with Tom Brokaw and Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The students are weeks away from graduating, and in all likelihood, less than one year away from combat duty. And our job was to do whatever we could to somehow arm with advice that will help them thousands of miles from here. It was daunting, but inspiring as well. They were truly impressive.
On the way here, the Pentagon announced that Gen. David Petraeus will move to U.S. Central Command, Gen. Raymond Odierno will become the new Iraq commander and Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin will remain as the No. 2 there. Throughout the day, I discovered the military was reacting in very different ways. As I boarded the plane from Washington, pundits, military experts and commanders alike were debating what the changes would mean for the Iraq mission, the future of military leadership and so on.
But at West Point, professors were boasting. The three commanders were all graduates of USMA's Department of Social Science. Not only that, they were classmates. Petraeus was from the Class of '74, Austin the Class of '75 and Odierno was a Class of '76 graduate.
No one had a clear answer about how the department of those years produced today's military leaders in Iraq. But the question spurred an interesting discussion. The guess around here is they were the among the first post-Vietnam students to arrive in West Point, that is, they were among the first tasked to fixing a military drained from that war. And when many of their classmates left in the '90s during the days of a shrinking military, they stayed, worked their way up and became nexus of today's military leadership. But why all social science majors? Perhaps, one professor here pondered, it's because that major, with its classes about politics, international relations and economics, suits those interested in counterinsurgency.
And I thought that for most, the "road to Iraq" begins with every young man or woman who cannot afford to go to college!
Posted by: abiodun | May 04, 2008 at 03:52 PM
Saying these three were graduates of the Social Sciences Department is incorrect. There were no majors offered at the Military Academy until the 1980s and individuals graduate from institutions not departments. Although GEN Petraeus did return and teach in the Department, the connection between the other two and the Department is not as close. This is not to say that the Department is not one of the Academy's best but only to say that they are not "products" in any sense of the Department.
Posted by: Stephen Grove | May 01, 2008 at 02:20 PM
I thought that for most, the "road to Iraq" began in Appalachia."
Posted by: oldfaithless | April 24, 2008 at 01:32 PM
Many years ago the curriculum at West Point was fixed for all cadets, 60% engineering and 40% social sciences. Then electives came in 1961 and majors later. A study was done to see which major track had the most success after graduation. The clear winner, to the surprise of many, was the social science graduates. The reason, it was speculated, was that those in engineering majors tended to see the world in black and white. Those with social science backgrounds tended to be the grads who saw gray areas in human endeavors. Consequently, the latter were much better prepared to handle the nuances confronting leaders at all levels.
Posted by: Regis | April 24, 2008 at 01:16 PM
Re question raised in last paragraph - Here's an answer that's equally as likely:
USMA Department of Social Science majors consisting of liberal arts (but because a military academy won't use the phrase, "liberal arts", they nomenclature it "social sciences" instead)courses in economics and politics are much less strenuous, time-consuming and challenging than than the lab and course work required for engineering and pure science majors at USMA. That is especially so at any military academy where there are so many other demands on each student above and beyond academic coursework.
Posted by: Murican | April 24, 2008 at 12:24 PM