In Defense of Difficult Discussions

Good day friends. With your kind indulgence, I would like to write a quick defense of difficult discussions in light of a concerning trend that I have recently observed within military education, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. I restrict my comments to those two arenas in my personal capacity, as my professional domain, but would be interested as to the observations of my esteemed non-military colleagues, if a comparable drift is resident in civilian academic settings as well.

I begin with a few important caveats. First, everyone has equal worth, and the only important human measures in my humble opinion are both content of character and professional competence. Second, general civility has been declining in our global society at an alarming rate, and simply being nice and respectful to those with whom you are debating seems inexplicably out of fashion. Finally, difficult issues are often difficult simply because they are difficult.

Yet with my final caveat in plain view, I would like to propose my overarching theme. Military students should continue to be exposed to, and openly wrestle with in spirited classroom discussions, difficult issues that they will likely confront in the larger Operating Forces. The specific types of difficult issues will always be myriad, multi-faceted, and perpetually changing. Today some of those difficult issues are 1) relentlessly reducing the sexual assault issues in the military; 2) the rightful and continued inclusion of transgender personnel in the military in recognition of their exceptional value and service; 3) the evolving national landscape on abortion under the new Dobbs ruling by the US Supreme Court; 4) the frustratingly enduring race problems in our country, which continues to fracture and divide us as American Citizens; 5) the never-ending debate about appropriate gun regulation in the face of continuous gun violence; and so on, and so forth.

In my lived experience, I have frequently found that the “right answer” is often never easy to uncover, and many times rarely singular in solution. Yet, the “wrong answer” can usually be ferreted out fairly quickly. (“What should I wear to the fireworks party?” “NOT gasoline.”)

In that same spirit, I believe the “wrong answer” with difficult discussions is simply to firewall them off completely, as too taboo and sensitive to even openly address (though individual exceptions of non-participation should always be considered in light of specific personal trauma), under the rationale that “student comfort” and “student safety” should be the predominate objectives in realization. Instead, the primary focus should be on “student development,” “student flexibility,” “student capability,” and “student resilience.”

Please mark my incontrovertible words. War is not comfortable. War is not safe. War is the complete opposite in every sense. With an ongoing proxy war in Ukraine on the cresting horizon, it is time for the military to recommit itself to training its students to the proper educational standard, which focuses on service member competence and adaptability being the guiding light, while still acknowledging the importance of individual convictions, and the ability to effectively communicate the underlying and nuanced foundation of those beliefs to fellow teammates in civil discussion.??

Please know that it is with incomparable pride that I absolutely treasure our military students, and am entirely devoted to both their welfare and development. That being said, I do not believe that our military students are our ultimate clients. Instead, I believe our ultimate clients are the future patients that our students will care for in the Operating Forces, the servicemembers they will lead throughout their military careers, and the American Citizenry to whom they have both individually and collectively pledged to defend our Republic against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. It is to those equally deserving groups that I believe we should stay most steadfastly committed by ensuring that we are producing the most capable and resilient military officers possible.?

Peace and blessings for your journey.?