I would venture to guess as long as humans have banded together in groups to do battle, there has almost always been someone there to lead them, and someone there to get dinner for him, run messages, polish his armor/shoes.
Sometimes it was a slave. Sometimes it was a wife. Sometimes a butler or equivalent. And sometimes it was a very junior soldier.
Sometimes they loved the man. Sometimes they hated the man. But they all did it.
I will have to read the story again. It seems like someone, somewhere has an axe to grind with this General. Otherwise, I didn’t anything egregious in there.
What I meant to say was I didn’t see anything all that egregious compared to what has been somewhat common practice to varying degrees.
He did indeed take something from this man, his time, which taking from those under you is considered taboo from a leadership and performance perspective.
I was also inclined to point out the guy was a Brigadier General, and how challenging is that job that you feel privileged enough to use someone like this. I have felt that someone near the top with huge responsibilities might have and excuse.
After all, nobody would have flinched if Admiral Nimitz had someone under him doing it.
But anything I have ever read about Nimitz clearly indicated he wouldn’t demand those types of tasks to be executed by a sailor, but there is a lot of evidence that many men would gladly have done that for him, and willingly. An amazing guy.
In this case, his job title does look like a tough one with a lot of moving parts: deputy commanding general and director of the Combined Joint Operations Center in Baghdad from May 2016 to June 2017, so I am not sure I should be so critical on that basis.