Top soldier leads from the front

by Stuart Crawford

The comments made by General Sir Richard Dannat, the Army’s new Chief of the General Staff and senior officer, have had the same effect as a hand grenade thrown into a crowded room.  There’s no escape from the explosion and everybody has been affected by the blast.

His outspoken views on the quagmire in which we find ourselves in Iraq have been condemned and praised in equal measure.  Condemned by those responsible for the debacle and those who lacked the moral courage to speak out against it, and praised by those who have been looking for a champion to tell the truth – including the very men and women who are in uniform in that troubled country at the moment.

I was aghast to read in the editorial of a leading Scottish newspaper yesterday that General Dannat had no right to speak out publicly and should hold his tongue in future.  Generals like him, it argued, shouldn’t interfere in politics and just do what they’re told.  In other words, the next time one of our boys or girls gets shot or blown to bits in Iraq because of naïve, muddled, and incompetent government policy their senior commanding officer should just keep his head down and carry on as normal?

I don’t think so.  That’s what all the rest of them have done and look where it got us.  Deeper and deeper into the mire with no end, or exit, in sight.    General Dannat has inherited a military disaster from his predecessor and deserves all our support in beginning to try and sort it out.  My only outrage is that the last CGS, the supposedly roughy-toughy Para General Sir Mike Jackson, didn’t say it all three years ago.

What we should all be clear about is the overwhelming and unanimous support for General Dannat and his comments from within the Armed Forces.  To a man – and woman – they wholeheartedly endorse what he has said.  Many have expressed the view that at long the last they have a leader who has the moral courage (they generally use another, earthier expression!) to stand up and be counted.  

Telling the unpleasant truth to those who won’t be pleased to hear it is what proper leadership is all about.   It’s a basic lesson which was drummed into all of us at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.  How sad that many of our senior officers seem to have forgotten it.

The General’s controversial views will also endear him to the general public, who are tired of the succession of timeservers and placemen who populate the upper echelons of many of our institutions.  We warm to “military mavericks” who challenge the norm and break the mould – Tim Collins, Bob Stewart and Clive Fairweather spring immediately to mind.  General Dannat may well be on his way to join that illustrious bunch, especially if the MoD is foolish enough to sack him or force early retirement.

And what of the reaction of that other “great leader”, our beloved Prime Minister?  He was like a rabbit caught in the headlights, totally at a loss as to what action to take?  The man used to being surrounded by acolytes who agree with his every utterance and bring him only good news was visibly shocked by such overt criticism from his most senior soldier.  How dare he speak so, and wipe off the front pages the complimentary coverage of the St Andrews discussions on Northern Ireland which his press advisers had so carefully planned?

The Prime Minister’s statement that he “agreed with every word” that Dannat had said was clearly uttered through gritted teeth and merely an old, well-used PR trick to buy some thinking time.  He no more agrees with his top soldier than he does with his Chancellor.  And it’s obvious that the whole Government media machine is in full damage limitation mode, with much effort devoted to persuading the General to retract.

Well, we can only hope that General Dannat doesn’t bow to the pressure and that he sticks to his guns.  We need someone of his rank and stature to tell it like it is, and so too does the Army.  There’s a palpable feeling amongst our hitherto unheard servicemen and women that at long last they have a champion who will give them a voice. 

Iraq has been a disaster from start to finish.  Now our senior General has said so.  It’s time to bring our troops home.

Stuart Crawford is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Tank Regiment and served in the first Gulf War.

© SWC 2000

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