I have just finished reading Dannat’s autobiography. As with all ex Generals autobiogrphies it was fascinating
A couple of things struck me about the book.
Probably the biggest was the disconnect between the MOD and the Army. In other words the disconnect between the people that make all the decisions like who to invade, how much is it going to cost and the organisation that actually carries out the orders. Seems to me like a hug moral hazard that the people saying bomb this country or invade that country are totally isolated from the brutal consequnces of their decisions.
An on going theme in the book was the struggle for proper funding. The whole thing made me wonder what exactly was the purpose of the MOD as they seem to be a completely different organisation from the armed forces themselves. What exactly is their purpose? to relay the Prime Ministers instructions to the Chief of Staff?
The MOD decides the funding for the Army, but they seem to have little or no clue as to what is required. And they always seem to fight against the wishes of the army heads. A consistent theme throughout the autobiographies I have written. And we are not talking about getting funding for things which would be nice to have, we are talking funding for stuff which seems to be essential.
Dannat also talked a lot about nation building, specifically in reference to Afghanistan. John Bolton the former US Ambassador to the UN specifically stated that the invasion of Afghanistan has nothing to do with nation building. I am not sure if Dannat was aware of Bolton’s statements (made after he had left his UN role) or maybe Bolton didn’t have much bearing on the actual military activities or his views were not that of the US
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