Jordan Davidson wrote on August 30 at The Federalist about Scott Adams’s “defense” of Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan that turned out to be a takedown of the top military bureaucrats managing the withdrawal from afar.
Scott Adams is the creator of the “Dilbert” cartoon who has become an independent political pundit since the 2016 election of President Donald Trump. In the August 27 episode of his regular YouTube show, he said he is a “president supporter” and wants to see whoever is in the job successfully.
Adams said that Biden faced problems that would only make sense to people in large organizations. According to Adams, leaders who give unpopular orders find that their subordinates massage the boss by resisting passively. Adams adds that military leaders profit from bad decisions that prolong bad missions.
He argued that the military did not want to withdraw from Afghanistan on the timeline ordered by either Trump or Biden fully. He added that they are likely to have divided loyalties between their current commander-in-chief and the weapons manufacturers they are likely to be working for in future years.
Adams argues that because the generals did not want to leave Afghanistan, they intentionally gave Biden poor options and manipulated him from otherwise good decisions.
He said generals “slow roll” just as people do in corporations when they do not obey the CEO’s orders. Adams says that even if a CEO fires everyone, the next round of subordinates will also slow roll when they do not want to do something unpopular.
As Davidson describes, Adams sees another option for a commander-in-chief. He can counter “slow-rolling” with even more direct orders that lean into his desired outcome. A president can directly order and then re-order, completion of his mission, or else top generals will be fired.
Adams concludes by pointing out that real leadership means telling generals that if they only present bad options for completing a mission, he will make the best choice from those bad options. He counsels presidents to get the job done the best way possible and then fire disobedient generals and let the public know precisely why he has done so.
