专业异见能够推动创新，并为我们所效力和工作的机构领导层提供不同的视角。对于肩负着打赢战争、在冲突中消耗国家鲜血和财富的军事机构而言，这一点尤为重要。
Professional dissent can drive innovation and offer differing points of view for the leadership of the institutions in which we serve and work. It is especially important for military institutions tasked with fighting wars and expending the nation’s blood and treasure through conflict.
如今，据报道，美国国防部内部存在着一种恐惧情绪。许多素质过硬的军官因含糊不清的原因而被从晋升名单中除名。陆军高级将领因被指未能与当前国防部领导层的意识形态目标及文化战争保持一致而被解职。
Today, there is reportedly a fear that exists within the U.S. Department of Defense. Highly qualified officers are being pulled off of promotion lists for vague and unclear reasons. Army senior leaders have been fired for reportedly not aligning themselves with the ideological aims and culture wars of current Defense Department leadership.
这种连锁反应是，这种恐惧会压制美国军队内部的异见，尤其是考虑到目前美国与伊朗的冲突正需要这种异见。
The ripple effect is that this fear can inhibit dissent within the American military, especially because it needed today during the U.S conflict against Iran.
在我的职业生涯中，曾有一段时间我是美国军队反叛乱理论以及美国在伊拉克和阿富汗战略的主要批评者。从2007年到2013年，我针对美国陆军和国防部撰写了评论文章，并向军方及平民受众发表了公开演讲和讲座。
For a time in my career, I was a prominent critic of the U.S. military’s counterinsurgency doctrine and of U.S. strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. From 2007 to 2013, I wrote commentaries and gave public speeches and lectures to military and civilian audiences directed at the U.S. Army and Department of Defense.
作为一名现役陆军军官，我小心翼翼地恪尽职守。我没有质疑美国历任总统在这两场战争中所做出的政策决定，例如小布什总统2003年决定入侵伊拉克并随后驻留占领该国八年的决定，或是奥巴马总统2012年决定向阿富汗“增兵”的决定。
As a serving Army officer, I was careful to stay within my lane. I did not question policy decisions made by American presidents in both wars, such as President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and then stay and occupy the country for eight years or President Obama’s decision to “surge” additional troops into Afghanistan in 2012.
尽管如此，很显然，我当年的这些举动惹恼了陆军军官阶层以及国防部里的许多人。那是因为我指出他们在伊拉克和阿富汗的作战方针以及更广泛的军事战略并未奏效。2012年，我甚至直言不讳地表示，美国在阿富汗遭遇失败的战略只配得一个“F”级（不及格）。
Still, it was clear that my efforts during those years ruffled a lot of feathers in the ranks of army officers and likely in the Defense Department. That’s because I said that their operational approaches in Iraq and Afghanistan and their larger military strategies were not working. In 2012, I went so far as to say that the United States deserved an F grade for its failing strategy in Afghanistan.
但高层领导从未要求我闭嘴，也从未要求我停止提出专业的异议。回想那段时光，令人鼓舞的是，美国军方——从五角大楼到陆军领导层——容忍了我的异议，尽管许多领导对此持不同意见，其中一些人甚至态度强硬。
But not once did senior leaders tell me to shut up and to stop producing professional dissent. Thinking back on those times, it is encouraging to remember that the U.S. military — from the Pentagon to U.S. Army leadership — tolerated my dissent, even if many of those leaders disagreed with it, some of them stridently.
很难想象，如今有哪位美国现役军人会对针对伊朗的行动提出类似的批评。在国防部这种恐惧的氛围中——美国军人和文职人员因涉嫌泄露敏感信息而接受测谎仪测试——试想一下，如果一名军官发表文章批评针对伊朗的行动，并严肃追问这些行动是否正在实现美国的目标，会发生什么。
It is hard to imagine a current U.S. service member offering similar criticism toward the operations against Iran. In this Department of Defense’s atmosphere of fear — where U.S. military officers and civilians are being polygraphed for allegedly leaking sensitive information — consider what might happen if an officer published an essay criticizing the operations against Iran and asking hard questions on whether they are achieving U.S. objectives.
现役军官批评作战方式或军事战略，与批评总统政府的政策和行动是不同的。道格拉斯·麦克阿瑟将军在1951年初的朝鲜战争期间就做了后者，他公开主张将战争引向中国本土，并可能对中国使用核武器。那不是专业的军事异议，而是违抗命令和对政策的公然挑战。哈里·杜鲁门总统因此解除麦克阿瑟的职务是正确的。
A serving officer criticizing an operational approach or military strategy is different from criticizing the policy and actions of a presidential administration. Gen. Douglas McArthur did exactly that in early 1951 during the Korean War, when he publicly argued for taking the war to the Chinese homeland and possibly using nuclear weapons against China. That was not professional military dissent; it was disobedience and an outright challenge to policy. President Harry Truman was right for relieving McArthur because of it.
2008年，当我的晋升材料摆在负责将我从中校晋升为少将的选拔委员会面前时，《华尔街日报》的一名记者撰写了一篇题为《军官质疑佩特拉乌斯的战略》的文章，报道了我早期对大卫·H·佩特拉乌斯将军领导下的陆军反叛乱行动的批评。
In 2008, when my promotion packet was in front of the selection board that could promote me from lieutenant colonel to full colonel, a Wall Street Journal reporter wrote an article titled “Officer Questions Petraeus’s Strategy” on my early criticism of the army’s counterinsurgency under Gen. David H. Petraeus.
我从未想过，我的专业异议会以某种方式损害我晋升少将的机会。我相信，晋升委员会会基于我在2003年伊拉克入侵期间作为中校在战场上的表现，以及2006年指挥巴格达西部一个骑兵中队时的表现，来做出决定。
It never occurred to me that my professional dissent could somehow hurt my chances for promotion to colonel. I trusted that the promotion board would base its decision on my performance as a lieutenant colonel in combat during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and when in command of a cavalry squadron in west Baghdad in 2006.
正如我所预料的，董事会的决策是基于我在战斗中的表现；幸运的是，我被提升为上校。
As I expected, the board based its decision on my performance in combat, and fortunately, I was promoted to colonel.
随着对伊朗的战争进入第七个月，以及未来美国可能卷入更多军事冲突的局势，如今以及未来，国防部允许军人表达他们的专业性军事意见（即使这些意见与官方立场不同），而不会因此受到任何不利后果，这一点显得尤为重要。
With the war against Iran entering its seventh month, along with the likelihood of future U.S. military conflicts, it is especially important today and in the future for the Department of Defense to allow service members to express professional military dissent without damaging repercussions.
历史提供了一个令人深思的例子：1968年3月，在越南战争期间的“春节攻势”期间，陆军直升机飞行员休·汤普森中尉目睹了美莱村无辜平民遭到杀害的惨状。他将自己的所见所闻报告给了上级领导，这一行为最终促成了全面的调查。
History offers a compelling example. In March 1968 during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War, Army helicopter pilot Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr. saw the killing of innocent civilians in the village of My Lai. He reported his observations to senior leaders, which eventually led to a full investigation.
希望国防部能够接纳军人们这种专业性的意见表达方式，从而为美国军队奠定一个基于理性思考、道德准则和伦理原则的运作基础。
Hopefully, the Department of Defense will embrace the spirit of professional dissent from today’s service members to ensure the intellectual baseline for an effective, moral and ethically driven U.S. military.
吉安·詹蒂莱（Gian Gentile）是一位退役的美国陆军上校，也曾担任西点军校军事历史项目的负责人。
Gian Gentile is a retired U.S. Army colonel and former director of the military history program at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.