Author Major General Vijay Pande (Retd)(Views are personal. Information is from open sources)
In his book with the same name, the author Joe Abercrombie referred to cannons as the last argument of kings. Cannons don’t lie. The round will fall where it is meant to. No half truths.
During the Moscow Conference of 1944, Stalin was known to have interrupted Churchill’s speech explaining why he defended Poland because of its Christian outlook, by asking, “how many divisions does the Pope have”.
The point I wish to make is that as an element of the comprehensive national power of a nation, the military constitutes the sharp tip of the arrow, the blunt face of the hammer. The military must say it as it is. No mincing of words, for it is the lives of soldiers that are involved and indeed the survival of the nation is at stake. Political leanings or an attempt to appear more loyal to the king than the king himself must not colour a soldier’s professional outlook whether during service or later on. If political leanings or desire for the crumbs of power are more important, then the trappings of the military identity should be kept aside. Soldiers earn the respect of their countrymen for their courage, both physical and moral.
Speaking one’s mind out does not make one any less patriotic than the other. This simple truth should not be lost in the nationalistic hype. Otherwise we will be no different than the Third Reich of Goebbels and Himmler. Knowledge is no longer the preserve of the select few and this fallacy collapsed long ago with the dawn of the information age. Everyone is equally aware and probably more. To consider the ordinary citizen as naive is the greatest folly.