He went running with the new people to get to know them? No, he went running with the new people to establish his superiority over them. “I can run faster than you, so I am better than you.” We had a lot of this in the Army. Cross country running is not a team sport. It is an individual sport. It brings glory to only the runner. Football is a team sport. The Offensive Tackle has an important and necessary part in every play. We have had cross country leadership in the Army for about 30 years. Think of the psychology of a guy who has to prove that he’s better than you by running. Not even by fighting you.....by running faster than you. You know what that proves? That he’s a better leader? That he’s a better Soldier? Nope. It only proves that he can run a mile faster than you. And when Al-Qaeda agrees to determine victory by a foot race, then, and only then, will running be so important.
Another thing to add. In football the object is to win the game. It seems these days winning is not a word in our vocabulary. Think about it, Petraeus is considered some kind of military genius, but where is his wins. He has been involved in what in military history would be called tribal uprisings. Hundreds of British and French generals through the centuries have crushed these in less time and with less resources than Petraeus has. If our men were led by the generals of yore, Iraq and Afghanistan would have been over by 2004.
A lot of truth there. I thought I was the only one who thought that...