[Ghostrider]

I am not an officer and do not "know" the political aspects of that job (there are enough at the senior NCO level as it is). However, after coming back from a year in the box, I did have the opportunity to observe decisions made by GOs that directly affected my Soldier's missions. How they came to their decisions really made you wonder about their decision making process. In addition to the political nature of the GO, I think their decisions are often made based on their staff input. This to me can only exacerbate poor decisions if that staff feels obligated to tell the GO what they think he/she WANTS to hear rather than what he NEEDS to hear.

Now I am not slamming the Officer Corps as a whole because I have worked with outstanding Officers who understood the balance they had to have to effectively lead Soldiers without putting their OERs in front.