I have a friend who works at the corporate headquarters of Dominos and when he was first hired he had to do many of the lower level jobs like making pizzas and delivering them. The idea was that you need to understand your product and your customers as well as have an understanding of how the business is run form top to bottom before you could sell the companies product.I believe this is not unique to Dominos and that many corporations do something similar.
I thought of this while listening to "On Point" on NPR last night with host Jane Clayson talking with guests author David Finkel and Army Captain Matt Gallagher. What struck me is the disconnect between the civilian leadership and the men and women in the service. I had this realization after a caller talked about his time in Iraq and how after a time he was just fighting to make it home. He was fighting to make sure his friends survived. He was still doing what he was told but the mission given to him seemed to become secondary to making sure he and his comrades lived another day. The guests talked at length about how disheartening the whole process was and how beaten down our soldiers were by the end of their tour.
It made me think of a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower where he said "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
I think the solution to keeping America from getting involved in more win less wars like Iraq is to have anyone who votes on or is involved in the decision to go to war, be forced to be embedded with combat troops for a year. This would combine some ideas from capitalism with politics for a more informed government. I think this would lead to an renewed commitment to exhausting all possible political solutions before putting more good young men and women in harms way.
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