US Army 172 Brigade Comd

1. 05 January, 2011
US Army 172 Infantry Brigade
Commander removed for not
having command qualities or
ulterior reasons
What exactly is command
potential ?
Major Agha H Amin (Retired)

2. Having served in the army
this could have been a case of
personality clash also ! Many
a times a man of conviction is
sacked and labelled as not
having command qualities !
This is quite common in the
military ! Exactly what is
command potential ! Being a
goodyes man with general
Batschelet !
I have seen the US soldier in
Afghanistan and I sympathise

3. with him because he is led by
hole punchers well described
in Crisis in Command!
The same process in Pakistan
Army as I saw it , a
conspiracy against originality
and boldness , i have
described in detail with
concrete historical evidence
in my article which may be
read by clicking on the link
below:--

4. http://pakistan-army-
interviews.blogspot.com/2010/
12/assessmentmilitary-
training-and.html

7. Terms like command potential
etc are twistable and pliable !
After all Colonel T.N Dupuy in
his book Genius for war did
prove that one German soldier
was equal to
three US soldiers because the
German organisation was

8. better ! They had a healthy
tradition of Auftragsatkiks
and a more vibrant officer
corps .
Lawrence of Arabia and
Napoleon were called mad
men by their superiors in rank
and appointment ! The use of
intangible words like
command potential has
always an ulterior motive !

12. Martin Van Creveld a
professor teaching at an
Israeli university also reached
the same conclusion as Dupuy
when he wrote Fighting
Power !

15. In Crisis in Command
two US officers Gabriel and
Savage reached the
conclusion that US Army was
plagued by a serious disease
of apple polishing ,
sycophancy and hole
punching ! I dont think it has
come out of it since Crisis in
Command was written !

17. The authors thus agreed that
the real fighting material in
Vietnam were sidelined while
the staff types who hole
punched came up.
Certainly US Army today is far
inferior to the US Army in
Vietnam in intangible military
virtues thanks to characters
like Rumsfeld who were
proponents of privatising
defense !

18. Rather reliance on private
contractors has
severely eroded the
Clausewitzian military virtue
of the US Army ! Thus we
have a US Ambassador
in Afghanistan who is a
lobbyist for 27,000 over paid
private American and British
security guards ! The whole
US Congress appears to have
been bought by the private
security companies !

19. One thing is clear ! The US
Army needs some Christian
values ! It lacks that burning
ideological nationalism of
theWehrmacht and the Red
Army though !
An army will not fight if its
political leadership is
lobbying for the wall street or
for KBR or Global Security
guarding US installations in
Afghanistan !

20. In 1994 my commanding
officer an outstanding man
was retired prematurely with
the same label that he lacked
command qualities because
he had defied his seniors over
a matter of principle !
Agha H Amin
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
-

21. Army Relieves 172nd Infantry
Brigade Commander
January 05, 2011
Stars and Stripes |by Seth
Robson
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany --
The Army has relieved the
commander of the 172nd
Infantry Brigade, shortly
before the unit intensifies its
training for
an Afghanistan deployment
this summer.
Acting V Corps commander
Brig. Gen. Allen W. Batschelet
said Tuesday that Col. Frank

22. Zachar was relieved of
command on Monday, "… due
to loss of confidence in his
ability to command."
Batschelet said there was no
specific incident that led the
Army to relieve Zachar.
"There weren't any illegal,
immoral or unethical
activities," he said. "His
[Zachar's] leadership style
wasn't really effective and
over time the command here
lost confidence in his ability
to command."
Attempts to reach Zachar on

23. Tuesday night were
unsuccessful.
The 172nd, which has roughly
3,500 personnel, is based in
Grafenwöhr
and Schweinfurt, Germany.
Zachar, who took command of
the 172nd in May, served in
Operation Desert
Shield/Desert Storm, and
inKosovo, Iraq and Afghanista
n. Before joining the 172nd,
he attended
the Army War College,
according to the brigade's

24. website.
"He's going to be reassigned
commensurate with his
abilities and rank," Batschelet
said of Zachar's future.
The 172nd's top enlisted
Soldier, Command Sgt. Maj.
Robert French, will also be
reassigned as a result of the
decision to relieve Zachar,
Batschelet said. The 172nd's
website lists Command Sgt.

25. Maj. Patrick K. Akuna as the
unit's interim command
sergeant major.
The 172nd is also without a
deputy commander since the
last officer to hold that
position, Lt. Col. Jamie
Gough, recently moved to
another assignment. 1st
Battalion, 77th Field Artillery
Regiment, commander Lt. Col.
Christopher Cardoni has been
appointed interim brigade
commander until a new leader
is appointed, Batschelet said.

26. "The Army will identify and
provide a new brigade
commander as expeditiously
as it can," he said.
The loss of the brigade's
commander will not adversely
affect the unit's preparation
for the Afghan mission. The
172nd has a training plan that
is similar to those followed by
other brigades that have
deployed, he said.
"I have full confidence in the

27. Soldiers and leaders who are
inside that formation,"
Batschelet said. "The unit will
be prepared for its impending
deployment."
This article is provided
courtesy of Stars and Stripes,
which got its start as a
newspaper for Union troops
during the Civil War, and has
been published continuously
since 1942 in Europe and
1945 in the
Pacific.Stripes reporters have

28. been in the field with
American soldiers, sailors and
airmen in World War II, Korea,
the Cold War, Vietnam, the
Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo,
and are now on assignment in
the Middle East.
Stars and Stripes has one of
the widest distribution ranges
of any newspaper in the
world. Between the Pacific
and European
editions, Stars and
Stripes services over 50
countries where there are

29. bases, posts, service
members, ships, or
embassies.
Posted by unknown at 11:23
PM
Labels: Afghanistan, Afghanis
tan-Afghan War-Camp
Leatherneck-USA-US Army-
NATO-War on Terror-Drugs-
Taliban-Al Qaeda