A Blind Man's Tear
Evaluate well your qualities and your limits, without allowing any deviation from yourself.
One of General Mustafa Yakibu's soldiers, who was left behind, discovered doctor Kendricks. He loaded his gun and turned it toward her with a single thought. A lot of possibilities of getting out of this situation passed through the woman's mind – going off was the first one, but she realized she had no time left. She remained unmoved, unable to react.
Lieutenant Waters immediately immobilized the soldier with a single blow of knife, thus saving the doctor from a certain death. Then, he gave the order to advance towards the Alpha area. But an inner voice stubbornly insisted into the woman's head. Driven by a boundless fear, the doctor asked Waters to do something to prevent the other soldiers of General Mustafa to reach the St. Michael mission. But the lieutenant had to be tought and cruel. A return from the primary goal could jeopardize his mission. So he completely ignored the women's desire and gave order to the other members of his commando team to go further.
Is your attempt to give meaning to experience lived through an incursion in the secret of a regret that helps you learn not to detest yourself for what you did wrong?
A commando leader sees the consequences of his actions further and with more clearly than others. When he has to fulfill an important mission, he must leave his worries aside and be prepared for any situation, react without hesitation and sentimentalism whenever it's needed, be colder than he really is, make any sacrifice, go right to target, without remorse and with no shame, always thinking to the consequences.
Do you allow any deviation from yourself? Lieutenant Waters, from the movie "Tears of the Sun (2003)", remained blind to the imperative request of doctor Kendricks and impassive to the fate of those of St. Michael mission. We can easily understand his attitude. He had to permanently look after setting the direction which his team was supposed to follow, imposing his will, in order to make sure the "package"will arrive safely at destination.
In leadership, you must strengthen your will to resist the temptation to reward yourself for your efforts in making an act of unlawful interference in a process of ascension. This ascension can alternate with your decay from your rights as a person dependent on a certain responsibility.
He had to be relentless in fulfilling his mission, forbidding the slightest deviation to himself or other members of his team. All his actions had to be subordinated to accomplishing the mission. He was not allowed to be uncertain and full of all sorts of doubts, lest he would fail. If he failed to obtain the promised results and fulfill the mission he was engaged to, his career would be over.
You can't be sure that the sun will shine tomorrow in military leadership. Lieutenant Waters couldn't afford to pay a tear for all those human lives in St. Michael mission which were in danger and for which he couldn't do anything, or rather he didn't want to do anything, being forced by circumstances and the requirements of his mission.
Are you the kind of leader who says "No" when feelings order him to say "Yes"?
But deep remorse seized him when he saw from the helicopter that all those people from the mission were killed by General Mustafa Yakubu's soldiers, which maybe he could top of getting there, but with the risk of other lives he was taking care of. At that time, his inner world, with all its contradictions, changed. Only then he realized that is not easy at all to be the kind of person who says "no", he trully realized what means to be a leader, to be forced to take uncomfortable decisions and not be able to save the world.
Where does your good soul "live" in difficult times? The most terrible ordeal for a leader with a big heart is to bury any trace of compassion.
As I said in the article "A sun on the way to west", Lieutenant Waters couldn't put out all trace of compassion inside him. But he returned and saved the locals he abandoned on the field, taking revenge for all those who died in the mission, because despite appearances of hard hearted man, he also had feelings.
The leader is the man who knows to make himself understood in a context given by the external circumstances and the conditions of validity of his identity in a general exploration of compassion, solidarity and frustration caused by the inability to prevent a tragedy.
Conclusion: Military leaders must execute orders of their superiors, despite personal feelings and beliefs. In military structures, the order is executed and not discussed about, otherwise you are harshly punished for any initiative for any initiative which deviates from fulfilling the order received. But tears on a blind man's face - of those who act blindly and without humanitarian feelings, are late and leave deep scars in their souls.
Evaluate well your qualities and your limits, without allowing any deviation from yourself.
