Army Officers: Ideots or Patriots?

During the assassination attempt in June 1944 on Adolph Hitler by the group around Graf Schenk von Staufenberg the question of the role of especially high ranking Military Officers became immanent. While these officers tried to blow up Hitler with a bomb they planned to take over the rules of Nazi Germany and end the war. Ukraine war triggers some Military Officers from both sides to think about their role in the army and society.

John Jerry Rawlings, the late President of Ghana, criticizes by many for his actions after the two military coups he had staged as a young Military Officer is now seen by his former critics as a Patriot and not an Idiot.

In many countries and democracies, the power over the military lies in the hands of many people working in their assigned or elected functions such as Defence Secretary, Defence Committee, or the role of Parliament in military aspects. In other societies, the responsibility for the armed forces lies only on the shoulder of one person the President.

The idea behind these fundamentally different two approaches is that armies can only function well under one command for good or bad (Adolf Hitler gave commands on which his Generals performed with no military proven expertise. Vladimir Putin follows the practice of the past). Other jurisdictions are of believing that the citizens must as broadly as possible be included in the process of war as their lives and fortunes are at stake in the end.

In western societies, Army Officers are mostly academics trained to think critically and independently. In African societies, this mostly is not the case but hierarchy matters more than academic thinking. Like in e.g. Ghana they are nothing but citizens in uniform nevertheless.

The dilemma such Army Officers find themselves in is their pledges of allegiance to their country and service and mandate and position given by a certain political leader and the party standing behind the President while at the same time, most of them know their role is not to govern their nations. They know how to shoot and kill while protecting their and other people's lives but to spin the wheel of fortune on the top level of society only possibly representatives from academically influenced Armies can deliver to the people.

The Army Officers around Graf Stauffenberg were mostly all Academics and many of the old royal German families that stood in the tradition of patriotism.

Countries like Ghana have a vast and long history of royal families that lost power while democracy in 1992 took over the nation. Army Officers are chosen by the political elite of the country lost in the course of the democratic process their sense of duty to the welfare of the nation being fed by the daily bread of party politicians at all levels and from all sides of the political spectrum.

In close and small societies like e g. in Ghana, the political elite and military elite are brothers and sisters from childhood and school. It does not come as a surprise therefore that a President like Nana Akufo-Addo begs for an understanding of the problems his administration had caused the nation and pleas for more time given to him to fix the situation that the Military Elite is complaining about but enjoys the food and drinks provided by the government. Some of them are aware the current President had only come to power over the poor performance of the previous President at the polling station. They calculate in the 2024 General Election John Dramani Mahama will take over the seat in Flagstaff House again as President of the nation. They allow him and his party to loot the public purse again as done in the past proclaiming it would be better to opt for a lesser corrupt President than the current one while visioning a leader with great vision and a track record of not being corrupt in any way does not hit their minds. The knot of Gordeon is not broken.

It seems not to touch their patriotic minds and hearts to end the suffering of the people once and for all by putting down their feet and changing the plight of Ghana with a radical new approach and solution.