NO ONE should ever be in authority without a sense of responsibility and the ability to function with honor and integrity. One of the greatest leaders in all of military history was Hannibal. He commanded an army for about 17 years which almost destroyed Rome. He had at least 6 different nationalities and races under him and they all had respect for him. These men in the army of Hannibal were at times starving, many were bribed, but this army almost destroyed Rome and for 200 years after Hannibal mothers frightened their children by telling them Hannibal was coming. With our Anglo Saxon general heritage we have had few truly great leaders because our leaders have been unable to effectively command 3 categories of the same race.
Aristocracy: The one who lives by the code of the gentleman. If the leader is an aristocrat he will have a front, not necessarily his real personality. of a gentleman and the middle class and trash don’t understand it and very often don’t respect it.
Middle Class: If the leader is middle class the aristocracy don’t want to serve under him because he is beneath them in class.
Lower Class: If the leader comes from the trash of society then everything is a mess and both aristocracy and middle class resent him and the trash don’t even like him not wanting a leader like themselves.
It is almost impossible to have a great leader in this type of societal system. This includes the Americans, Australians, British, Rhodesians, South Africans, and others. The Few great leaders in this system might include Marlboro, Wellington, maybe Allenby in WWI, General Richard Connor had he not been captured. Wellington learned about aristocracy and thus was able to command them and he learned that mules could go 16 miles in a day with a full pack and thus he became one of the 2 great Anglo Saxon leaders. There was Cromwell also but he only had 1 class of people fighting another class.
In America we have had very few great leaders. George Washington had one of the most difficult times any man ever had because HE resented the gentleman class because of his own half brother Charles Leed who almost destroyed him and George Washington was NOT the great leader he is thought to have been. His 4 greatest battles were fought in New Jersey, in Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth which would have been his greatest battle had it not been for Charles Leed commanding 1 wing and when he was ordered to advance he went the opposite way and this resulted in a terrible disaster. Washington was, however, a very tenacious and wonderful person. The War of 1812 was a series of complete disasters where there were people leading ONLY their kind and this is when it was decided that the United States needed a professional army.
In the war between the states it took the Yankees 4 years to get professional in their army, but the southern aristocracy made the finest leaders in United States history. Lee and Jackson, are the 2 greatest military leaders we have ever had because they could lead all categories of men. Patton and MacArthur were 2 incredible leaders and had our government listened to both of them there would be very very little communism in the world today. Patton was always resented and was truly great. General Pershing had no ability to see clashes within his own his expeditionary force groups and his catering so much to the French eliminates him as a great leader.
Good Leadership is essential in warfare. War plans are formed by wisdom and planning from professional leadership and war must be made with wisdom. All war must be accomplished with wisdom and we, in the United States, don’t have nor do we develop this in our system because we have never encouraged the profession of the military. Leadership includes the principles of understanding discipline having personal self discipline and being involved in group discipline. Physical training is a test of self discipline and this is needed for group discipline and if a person cannot discipline self he cannot be disciplined and effectively operate in a military team. Self discipline is the beginning of the principle of authority and it’s proper use without its abuse. There must also be a professional understanding and knowledge of all phases of military function including Logistics which, although not very exciting, must not be avoided.
Pettiness The Destroyer of Potential Greatness
Every group of people in the world, in all of history, have a better record for great leaders than we in the United States ever had apart from a major crisis. Mongolians, French, Prussians, Swedes, ETC., all have greater leadership than we. The thing which destroys the emergence of a great leader in the United States is a result of our national characteristic of PETTINESS. Legalism is such a strong Anglo Saxon characteristic because of pettiness. Pettiness leads to arrogance and you cannot have either and be a truly great leader. One reason that the United States of America will NEVER have many truly great leaders is that as a people we are coddled and go about handling people completely in the wrong way. People will never understand the principle, LEADERSHIP SHOULD ALWAYS BE THE ONES BEING CATERED TO NOT THE DOWNTRODDEN. We have seen movies and heard sob stories about how we must always help the down trodden and weak ones and that there are great decorations given for saving lives. We are saturated with the evil notion that there must be equality for happiness. There should NEVER be thoughts of equality or that there can be no happiness until there is equality. WE AS A PEOPLE ARE AND HAVE BEEN SATURATED WITH PETTINESS.
Common sense and good judgment developed from Metabolized Bible Doctrine in the Stream of Consciousness of the Soul are essential for men to become great in leadership. This applies to every situation where there is any authority structure including, churches, businesses, families, athletics, education, etc., and this principle works in every aspect of life. All of us have people above us in authority and people below us under our authority and in all of life the people who are able to function properly are only those who can handle both loyalty directions with integrity. They are loyal to those above them even though disagreeing with the policies but they never lose track of taking care of those under them. This at times can be difficult and often impossible especially in the military. It may mean sacrificing a command under orders and when a leader is caught between a ranking officer, whom he does not like, giving orders to sacrifice his command the option of disobeying those orders makes the choice very difficult. If he disobeys the order and does not sacrifice his command which is to be used to protect a great army thrust the overall plan will fail. He must do his job right and remain loyal to the ones above him, even if it means sacrificing his command in order to promote the totality of the battle. This is the principle of simply obeying orders. When orders are