TEDxAmsterdam talk by Gen. Van Uhm on "the gun as an instrument to making a better world"

[Euromutt]

General Peter van Uhm is the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) of the Netherlands, which makes him the highest-ranking military officer in that country. He commanded an infantry company of the Dutch UN battalion in Lebanon in 1983, and served with headquarters of SFOR in Bosnia in 2000-2001, as well as overseeing, first as Commander Land Forces and then as Chief of Defense Staff, the Dutch involvement in Afghanistan from 2006 to 2010. The day after his appointment as CDS, his son Dennis, at the time a Dutch army lieutenant, was killed by a roadside IED northwest of Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan province.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHX5lAslnTc

I think some observations do need to made concerning Van Uhm's talk, the first and perhaps foremost of which is that the Weberian Gewaltmonopol des Staates ("the state's monopoly on violence") does not preclude private citizens from using violence, e.g. in self-defense, but the state still has the monopoly on ruling whether an instance of private use of violence is legitimate (thus the state still has the authority to investigate, prosecute and try an assault or homicide claimed to be in self-defense). Furthermore, for over 80% of those 500 years of declining murder rates, private ownership of firearms was for all practical purposes unrestricted. Hence, a firearm need not necessarily be in the hands of an agent of the state to be interposed between those who would do harm and those upon whom harm would be visited.

I'm not entirely certain what lessons I'm prepared to draw from Van Uhm's talk, but I thought I'd share because it is thought-provoking.

[one-eyed fat man]

1. The general's hope

Like most soldiers, is to have fought in the "last war."

As long as there are those who would harm us, it will be necessary to deter them. Failing that, it will take the skill at arms to defeat them. As he said, it will take well-equipped, well-trained and dedicated soldiers willing to put their lives on the line to accomplish that.

As to the decrease in violence, look at the tourists on a Rhine river cruise wondering why all those "romantic" castles appear to be in states of disrepair. That they were fortresses and besieged is beyond their kenn. That they protected the peasants and serfs in the towns surrounding them from depredations the knights of neighboring castles escapes them.

[Euromutt]

2. Re: those castles: or vice-versa

Quite frequently, the castles belonged to robber barons so they could extort money--excuse me, "levy tolls"--on the boat traffic along the river, and the castles were besieged because their occupants were plying their racket without authorization from the Holy Roman Emperor.

[one-eyed fat man]

4. Pfalz and Gutenfels

Burg Pfalz is one such fortification was built on a sandbar in the Rhine precisely for exacting tolls. Note the boat shaped structure to ensure it withstood high water. It was, in all likelihood not painted so gaily in the 14th century. The barons did not neglect taxing their serfs and peasants. That they protected their towns is more akin to making sure it was they who got to "fleece their sheep."

Pfalz Castle in the middle of the Rhine and Gutenfels Castle in the background, with the town of Kaub in between.



One does need to remember that Americans think a hundred years is a long time while Europeans think 100 miles is a long way. Those who think the castles in Germany seem close together need to remember when they were built they were a couple days apart on horseback, not 15 minutes on the Bundestaße.

As a former infantryman, you certainly must have pondered what warfare must have been like as you "rushed" up the incredibly steep approaches to latest in medieval military architecture while the inhabitants hurled, spears, arrows, excrement, boiling oil and dead animals down upon you.

[Name removed]

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[RSillsbee]

5. The career goal of all soldiers

Most movies are crap but I really like a quote I heard from Ronnie Cox in the movie TAPS


"I am soldier my friend with the career goal of all soldiers; staying alive in situations where staying alive ain't all that easy to do"