In 1990, during the lead-up to the first US-led Gulf War, the American air-chief let it slip that the air-strikes are going to be targetting Saddam Hussain and his cohorts in Baghdad.
That was it. That’s all Air Force General Michael Dugan said.
The defence secretary summarily dismissed him for his “poor judgment during a sensitive time.”
He shouldn’t be talking to the media. About operational details, no less.
Within our own army, we have a PR set up. It seems to be rather large, the subject for another column.
But we have become a country where military officers that are not deputed to the PR wing are speaking to the press and holding forth their point of view. Like the Sindh Rangers’ chief Gen Bilal Akbar.
But perhaps all that pales in comparison with the army chief taking the Indian prime minister’s name in his address in Gilgit-Baltistan. Now this might have been motivational for the troops. Or this might have even been a premeditated, carefully calibrated statement. But whatever it was, it would have sounded much better coming out of the foreign office’s spokesperson.
The cart is truly before the horse in our hapless republic.