Where has the fighting spirit gone?
Photo: Abir Sultan, IDF Spokesperson's Office
IDF's low self-esteem
Army officials must find way to keep best, brightest soldiers in uniform
The Second Lebanon War left the army with a lingering illness that is only getting worse, and the IDF is unable to overcome it even now, a year later. It can train people, it can replenish its stockpiles with sophisticated equipment and it can devise wonderful operational plans. However, it is unable to alleviate the moroseness and the low self-esteem prevalent in the career army that is worsening since the last war.
This statement is not just another case of the self-flagellation that has gripped us since then. Figures and data attesting to this have been brought to the tables of the head of the IDF's human resources department and the chief of staff. Now even Ehud Barak is taking an interest in them. And there's a reason for this.
If every second pilot wants to go home following the war, something here is terribly wrong.
The IDF department of behavioral science, which examines the views of military personnel, put a simple question to members of the career army: How is the military profession perceived by civilians? Is it perceived as prestigious? In 2005, before the war, 61 percent of military officers responded that in their view civilian society viewed the military profession as prestigious. Following the war in 2007, only 26 percent of career army officers said their career was perceived as a prestigious profession.
The remaining respondents are convinced the public views them as idle loafers. With such an image it is hard to instill a real fighting spirit among the forces and to win wars.
The public, incidentally, has a more agreeable attitude towards the military profession. At the beginning of 2007, at the height of the crisis that erupted in wake of the war, 30 percent of civilians still believed that serving in the career army was a prestigious profession. It's not much; however, it is higher than what army career officers noted. And if this is not considered low self-esteem, then what is?
Blaming the media
The implications of this development are destructive and not only in the medium and long term. The damage is already evident in the short term: Several hundred young officers ranked lieutenant or captain are not signing up for career service. There is a particular shortage of combat-supporting technological professionals.
Nonetheless, the ranks are being filled, but by whom? Now the human resources department is examining the people who have opted to stay on. Are they the best? Are these the type of people the army is truly interested in?
The examination has yet to be completed, but the picture that emerges so far is pretty somber. If in the past, four officers contended for a job, now it's only one or two. A winning team cannot be selected from such limited choice. And these officers will end up becoming lieutenant-colonels, colonels and brigadier-generals. And if they are not the best while serving as lieutenants and captains – then the top military brass will also be mediocre. And if the best are not at the top then we really haven't overcome the ailment left behind by the war.
Field units do not feel the shortage of lieutenants and captains who continue to serve in the career army. However, there are multiple signs at the human resources departments attesting to the ailment starting to spread there too. The military elite makes life easy for itself by looking for easy solutions. Who, in its opinion, is responsible for the sense of gloom prevalent among the ranks? The media of course, who else? And in order to justify itself it clung to the surveys.
Career army officers were asked how they thought they were depicted in the media. Prior to the war in 2005, it was quite good: 50 percent of professional army personnel thought that the image of the IDF in the media was positive. Following the war, in 2007, there were signs of total collapse: Only 1.5 percent of career officers though the IDF's media image was positive.
So the media is at fault. It is to blame for the dismal spirits of career officers. It is guilty for not reporting that we won the war. It is to blame for the Winograd Commission's rulings, assigned to probe the shortcomings of the war. And it is the media that makes every Israeli mother discourage her son from continuing to serve in the army. (As if 10 years ago mothers encouraged their sons to embark on a military career.)
Next, the thriving high-tech industry is to blame. And then there are the low salaries, heavy workloads, declining resources, and organizational changes.
True, the war experience wasn't really a boost, the army admits. There's only one thing they are not looking for: Self examination.
Troops charge forward in battle because of their comrades and commanders. Officers will want to continue serving in the army because of the personal examples set by their direct commanders or because of a professional, serious working environment, as well as the atmosphere and good friends.
But if the officers are unlucky, and their direct commanders – miserable majors or a lieutenant-colonels, don't set a personal example and are not particularly smart, why should these officers wish to continue being part of the military?
Perhaps the time has come to promote an officer based on the quality of people he has succeeded in keeping in the army. This would be the criteria that would attest to the commander's quality and the personal example he set. Perhaps the reform should start there.
