[Weekstrom]On DAF

Day 2,949, 15:48 • Published in Netherlands Netherlands • by Weekstrom

Given the current circumstances and given the fact odan already went public via forum and ElGorro did the same in an article I decided to write an article to explain my action to you all and shed a light on the situation from my perspective and a potential solution for eNL’s politicians and soldiers.


What happened?
After 10 days this term I made my first remark about gov not communicating matters towards commanders in the commander chat up until a statement from odan. At that point 12 hours ago. A few comments from a few gov members followed of which some came from Tim Veltkamp, our MoD, who had been silent the first 9 days of his term. Almost immediately he mentioned that command perhaps should be handed over to the MoD if communication was to sparse. Soon after that remark a separate message from odan arrived;
“The government wishes to assign a new commander in DaF, please hand over command to tim veltkamp asap.

odan.”

Naturally that was, sort off, a surprise. Asked for the reasons and also stating DAF should be led by soldiers, not politicians nothing came but “it’s the law”. A bit later he mentioned there was a plan but asking for it revealed nothing apart from a thread he would go to congress to force me to resign. An empty thread though as he already had started that. As still nothing of a plan is announced I take it it’s only another attempt to get rid of me as has been tried by several individuals from a certain group of players.

Why I don’t hand over command to Tim?
There are a few reasons.
- First off all; No reason has been presented but “The law”. Interpretation of the law can be debated however so it’s unclear whether or not I should comply to that.
- Second; When given command (3 years ago!) I was told to make sure command would stay in the hands of soldiers and not politicians as, back then, some politicians that had the power were messing with our MU’s and over the past few years that thread has been in place a few times as well and could be the case now as well.
- Third; I don’t think handing over command to the MoD and therefore a potentially inexperienced commander (Even more the current MoD is never heard off within DAF let alone actions have been noticed) and a monthly changing one as well will not serve our soldiers well.
- Forth; If I leave command I feel it my responsibility “my” soldiers are been taken care off. I don’t have the feeling the change asked for will safeguard that.

And although some players seem to think so; I don’t care about my position. Never did as commander, never did as MoF. I care about our country which is one of the reasons I, unlike several other so called important players, never left and always was there when needed. Present me with a decent successor and I hand over command. Not a problem at all!

State MU
Several Gov players like to use the argument it’s a state MU and therefore should obey gov orders. A bit of a history first; Some time ago we had several state MU’s and one private MU who happened to be the property of a powerful politician disliked by a lot of older players yet happened to be swapping positions with DAF when it came to power. With the, valid, argument eNL would benefit from a strong military rather than a divided one it was then decided gov would try to get all players in one MU. There was however a more pressing reason for several players; Get rid of that private MU and hurt the owner.
To make the plan have more chance of success a commune program was mentioned due to which all soldiers should benefit from a reasonable amount of supplies. At least the same or more than that private MU paid. And instead of allowing all soldiers to benefit the plan was developed to only let State MU members benefit. The plan to get rid of that other MU succeeded and in effect that private MU was destroyed leaving DAF as the main military unit and regarded as state MU.

As for the supplies it's a different story. Imo a State MU should be a MU in which players benefit from supplies more than would be the case in a private MU. After all gov bought several facilities to provide them with it. Sadly, on average, the soldier of DAF gets the same amount of supplies as he would get in a private MU at best. Most of the time he will be way better off in a different MU however. And the unity? Well, several of the politicians wanting one MU left DAF again after the private MU was eliminated to start their own (party) MU or join another (foreign) MU. So much for unity.

That said I do support the idea of DAF being the State MU. However; gov should be glad to have a MU they can order to fight in certain battles. They act however as if the MU should be glad to be a State MU. As it is the state benefits way more from the MU than the other way round.

So does DAF take orders from gov then?
Naturally. Let there be no doubt; orders are followed. When asked to fight orders will be set. That does however not mean that no questions are asked. When given an order the commander can and will ask for an explanation when he thinks it's needed to explain to soldiers questioning it or asking for an explanation. Most CP's and MoFa's over the years didn't like that as they seemed to have big problems explaining what they were doing. With a few positive exceptions. A commander that keeps asking what they are doing is a pain in the ass naturally and he can be difficult to work with as a result.

Why not listen to the order to hand over command?
Apart from reasons mentioned above;
The command structure of a MU should be the responsibility of the military. Just like politics should be the responsibility of the politicians. So a gov can ask (sound better than order don't you think?) to fight at a certain spot and DAF will set the orders. Gov should however have no say in how the MU will organize itself.

Should the commander decide then?
No he should not. It can’t be up to one individual to do so. When changes in the structure of DAF were needed it therefore has always been discussed with key players within the MU. DAF acts as a democracy in that respect.
The fact not one individual should decide also was one of the reasons in the past proposals have been made to solve that among with regulating the separation from gov and military responsibilities. I don’t know the exact details anymore but the best one I've seen come along was something like this; a military council should be installed to take care of the military. That council would consist of (2nd) commanders (not only from DAF preferably), one or two experienced advisor's and the MoD that is in place. This council would debate matters and make decisions on how the military would be organized and who will have command. The MoD is the linking pin between gov and the armed forces without the risk off one gov being able to destroy the MU. For instance by changing things every month as has been done in the past which led to the powerful private MU mentioned before. This same structure however makes sure however gov is having the possibility to vent ideas and or create plans. For reasons unclear (although I have my thoughts) it never lifted off. Yet it is one of the solutions that would have prevented a stalemate like we are in right now and it makes sure players are used on their strength. Politicians on politics, soldiers on military issues without telling the other side how to do their job. Not saying this should be the way to handle matters but something needs to be done formally obviously as there is too much room for interpretation in the law and too much interfering from a gov in the military.

To conclude with
To me there seem to be two possible solutions out of this;
1. odan presents the plans he mentioned but are unknown. If they proof to be solid and a replacement commander is presented that will not be doubted I will hand over command without hesitation
2. The decision is made to work on a solution to prevent this from happening again and political and military matters stay separated without gov denying the right to give orders naturally.
Should 1 be the case, which I doubt will happen this term, that does not mean 2 can be skipped if you ask me.

I wish congress, gov and others all the wisdom they need to come up with a future proof solution benefiting eNL as a whole! I urge them to include soldiers in that as well. And you all can be sure I will hand over command the moment matters are clear and solved. As several off you know I'm eager to be relieved. But there needs to be a good solution for the soldiers!

WKR,
Weekstrom