In spite of their rather extensive combat experience in Uruzgan and other places in Afghanistan, in addition to a lot of other smaller security operations in the last few decades, there is one event that continues to haunt the Dutch national security apparatus; the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.
For those who don’t know the background, this 2-minute summary by the BBC will work along with a few other items just an internet search away. That story has similar issues as the UN contingent in Rwanda that same decade which put the old phrase, “Never Again” in to a punch line.
How has both popular and official judgement fallen in these two cases? Sadly, on the military officers at the pointy end of the tragedies. Where does the blame really belong?
I think a turn of phrase in a recent article in the Dutch language paper de Volkskrant puts in well. Pardon my clunky translation;
‘The genocide could have been prevented. (…) Provided the international community had been willing to provide a lot of troops, units and equipment into that area. To keep the solemn promise, “We are going to protect you.” Dutchbat (Dutch Battalion) was a paper tiger, says soldier Beukeboom. Food, fuel, ammunition, everything ran out due to Serb blockades, and there was no airlift. Sergeant Frans Erkelens: “We also said: UN, that is United Nothing.”
The enclave fell and upon return home, the Dutchbat soldiers became inextricably linked to the genocide – their role in the deportations is discussed in part 2 on Tuesday evening. “The media had already passed judgment on us,” said Beukeboom. “At first we were heroes, I didn’t think that about anything, a few days later war criminals.”
Neither of them was, and this were in a gray era. Of course that illustrious ‘piano player‘ movie comes along, but not to condemn the Dutchbat. Soldier Remko de Bruijne says that just before the Serbian seperation, a pig’s throat was cut and behind the curtain sat Dutchbat soldiers held hostage by the Serbs, who feared the same fate. Then comes the phrase, “Don’t shoot the piano player,” and well, you know what Mladic answers. But if you like metaphors, this is not just about the pianist, but about the absence of a conductor, the wrong score, and the collapsing orchestra building.
Exactly right. The local commanders did not choose their Rules of Engagement. They did not choose their National Caveats. They did not approve the constraints and restraints put on their mission … and yet, the guilt falls on them. This is not right.
There are civilian Dutch and UN diplomats, politicians, and policy makers that created those impossible conditions. Who are they?
Why has history largely given a pass to those in the national and UN hierarchy that put them in this situation? They still, to the public at least, remain nameless or not even discussed. The uniformed leadership on the ground is the scapegoat for those civilians leaders who remain detached, removed, remote, and unaccountable.
Yes, what about the conductors?
We can expand this question even further. In a recent article about what is the best option going forward for our carrier fleet, former SECNAV John Lehman in The Washington Times outlines another group of largely ignored conductors,
Against Navy objections more than a dozen new not-yet-existing technologies were ordered added to new naval ships: electric catapults and arresting gear, magnetic elevators, stealth hulls, modular weapons, rail guns, guided ballistic naval guns, on and on. The results were the catastrophic fiascoes of the Ford carrier, the Zumwalt destroyer and the LCS; three floating camels designed by joint Pentagon committees, not the Navy. Here we go again.
Now once again we are seeing the rhythm of history repeating itself. Despite President Trump declaring his policy to rebuild the fleet to 355 ships, his Defense bureaucracy has completely reversed course.
While we seem to fire the random Program Manager as a sacrifice to Vaal for these horribly programs and find their names and pictures posted far and wide in the press, they are mostly innocents just trying to make the best of other people’s failures. Yet, who are those people higher up in the chain that Lehman mentions? What are their names? What are their office codes?
Why are the Whiz Fogies and their departments not held to a higher standard?
While at peace they are responsible for the almost criminal waste of billions of taxpayer dollars & IOUs. If our Navy goes to war, their mal-management the last quarter century will not just be responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of Sailors, it will put our Navy at Tactical and Operation Risk – and it’s nation at an unnecessarily high level of Strategic risk as a result.
In the cacophony exuding from our leading institutions looking for more heads, why is no one interested in the conductors … but only the poor piano players just trying to play the random notes coming from the podium?
We keep shooting the piano players, yet the orchestra never improves.
