Our Future Leaders Are Doing Their Practicums in Afghanistan

Thomas Friedman is hanging out in Afghanistan this week, pontificating about the need to hang in their and continue to hammer stability into one of the more unstable corners of the world. I could launch an entirely new blog with that conversation.

But what Friedman really got me thinking about was the next generation of leaders that will emerge from the streets of Baghdad and the mountains along the Pakistan border. I suspect they will be as pragmatic and out-of-the-box dealing with issues both domestic and foreign when they are out of uniform as they have been in firefights and humanitarian missions in uniform. Pragmatic and out-of-the-box are rare enough qualities in leaders these days, especially when they are combined.

The reason for optimism? All those deployments have left us with a deep cadre of officers with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, now running both wars — from generals to captains. They know every mistake that has been made, been told every lie, saw their own soldiers killed by stupidity, figured out solutions and built relationships with insurgents, sheikhs and imams on the ground that have given the best of them a granular understanding of the “real” Middle East that would rival any Middle East studies professor.

I’ve long argued that there should be a test for any officer who wants to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan — just one question: “Do you think the shortest distance between two points is a straight line?” If you answer “yes,” you can go to Germany, South Korea or Japan, but not to Iraq or Afghanistan. Well, this war has produced a class of officers who are very out-of-the-box thinkers. They learned everything the hard way — not in classes at Annapolis or West Point, but on the streets of Fallujah and Kandahar.

Friedman is optimistic about the mission in Afghanistan. I've spent time with some of these folks, and I can't wait for the military to cut them loose so they can come home. I'm optimistic about the mission that follows -- reshaping our own country in the years to come. It's not like we're doing such an excellent job with the leaders we've been getting out of our business schools...