New York Post
February 14, 2009

Heroes Without Headlines

With things going so well in Iraq, the embed count is nearing zero.

By Ralph Peters

FT. LEAVENWORTH, KAN.--THE Missouri River runs brown in the winter.
Standing on the western bluff, you look down past still-visible wagon ruts marking
the start of the Santa Fe Trail and on to the landing that served Lewis and
Clark.

Across the river's great bend, bare trees fringe the floodplain that rises
to the low hills of Missouri. Under the winter sun, the panorama gleams with
a heartland beauty. A passenger jet rises in the distance.

Turn around: You're at the heart of Ft. Leavenworth, the soul of the US
Army, where centuries of ghosts watch over men and women returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan.

From here, the Cavalry rode west and the troop trains rolled east.

Amid the old brick quarters and barracks, Sherman had second thoughts about
his career and a young instructor named Eisenhower, who longed to be fighting
in France, dressed down a carefree volunteer named F. Scott Fitzgerald.

At dawn, the ghosts congregate so thickly by the old parade ground that you
almost feel their touch as you jog by. They come out to recall the campfires
and campaigns, and to stand watch over those who've rallied to their
traditions, who took up the guidons and flags.

The spirits who once wore blue then gray, Cavalry twill or olive drab, are
proud these days. As a new class of officers enters the Army's Command and
General Staff College, virtually every one wears a combat patch on the right
sleeve. The ghosts understand.

The wraiths are there by the chapel, standing to. They once rode west across
an unmapped prairie, stormed Mexico City's gates, faced off at Vicksburg
and finally quelled the Apaches. They went over the top in France, survived the
Bataan Death March and rode helicopters into firefights. They understand.

But the old ghosts don't understand the times beyond the post's front gate.
They can't understand the devious spite the nation's elite directs toward
our troops.

How could these spirits - who saw more American soldiers die in an afternoon
than have fallen in six years in Iraq - comprehend the privileged Americans
who delight in tales of rising military suicide rates or "vets gone wild,"
while ignoring the heroes who've won a war that America's intellectuals
declared unwinnable?

Well, Sherman's wraith understands: At one point in our Civil War, he
banished the press from his camps and hankered to string up a few reporters.

But the other ghosts are befuddled. Grant, our greatest general, believed
that crises would bring out our best.

Earlier this week, I spoke with present-day officers studying at Ft.
Leavenworth. It struck me, yet again, that we have never had a better Army.. (The
Navy, Marines and Air Force are represented, too - by tradition, all the
services send contingents to each others' staff colleges.)

These men and women in US uniforms are serious and skilled, bold and
uncomplaining. What's striking is how little they expect: Of all Americans, they
have the least sense of entitlement and the greatest sense of duty.

Nor is the officer corps forged by our current wars a breed of yes-men.
They've learned the hard way to ask the toughest questions. Listen to the majors
in the new class and you find Army officers dubious about our lack of a
strategy in Afghanistan, Air Force pilots appalled at the waste involved in
buying the F-22 - and sailors (far from the sea) thinking beyond the horizon to
future threats.

And then there are the Marine officers, ready for anything.

The closest thing to bitching I encountered was an observation by a superb
public-affairs officer with whom I worked in Anbar: Now that things are going
so well in Iraq, he reports, the press isn't interested - the embed count is
dropping toward zero.

Well, during my latest visit to Ft. Leavenworth I didn't meet any of the
tormented, twisted soldiers the press and Hollywood adore. Just the men and
women who stand between our country and the darkness.

They're home with their families for a bit, but the workload at the Staff
College is heavy. Officers who grasp the tenets of counterinsurgency have to
master big-war planning, too. We need to be prepared for any conflict.

And these officers who, for a few months, have traded their weapons for
computer screens, will be ready. These are the men and women the headlines
ignore. Because these are the officers who won.

The ghosts can stand at ease.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and a Command and General Staff
College grad ( barely)