Please stop risking the lives of military men

Correspondent | Friday August 29, 2014 14:54

 

Not only is it a sign of immaturity and lack of military discipline from my fellow military men who shared such information but is it a risk to the lives of many of us in uniform. How I wish I could wake up and realise that this is all a dream. How I wish I could wake up and realise that my life is not being put in deliberate danger by fellow military officers. This is sick to say the least. The oath that we took has never meant to be easily gone against as is the case. I am not saying we don’t have our own frustrations, but using them to endanger a country and its citizens who we are supposed to protect is utterly wrong.

I have been dreaming and wishing to write but with very little confidence and natural fear that my line of duty does not allow these kinds of engagements. Retired Richard Molefe, infantryman and army chaplain writings have inspired in me a sense and belief that I should communicate my displeasures. The difference between me and Retired Infantryman Richard Moleofe is that I am a serving military officer whilst he is retired and he is also an aspiring parliamentary candidate for Mogoditshane. Though there are points of differences between me and him, I am happy that a man from my own ranks and service is able to write with such great confidence.

I have joined the BDF not because I did not have a career of choice. I joined the BDF because of its reputation and its dignity as a protector of the nation. Growing up as children playing in the streets of Tlokweng we all wanted to be soldiers. We played with our gun toys and watched military movies and television programs envying the bravery, the physical strength and the action based careers of military men. I still recall how together with my childhood friends we acted soldiers and kicked the hell out of one another. I still remember the toys that we preferred, the toys that I preferred. The toys that resembled the action packed movies we watched.

I joined the scout movement of Botswana because it presented me with an opportunity to be in the wild. An opportunity to have a uniform and yes, I was lucky and fortunate to have parents whom upon  their sense of instilling discipline saw in the boy scout movement an opportunity to give me a sense of patriotism and discipline. That really helped. The ever painful punishment I got was at the boys scout movement where a full bucket of water was poured all over me for being late for drillings which we then simply referred to as marching. This was a part of those exercise that helped me build patience and tolerance towards the discipline instilled by seniors.

Somewhere along the lines of growing up I became a part of those who shunned the BDF. I shunned it because of the stories of military men becoming popular for soft military loans. The military men’s love of and for young girls. My friends, or at least to label them correctly, school mates detested the military men for being stuck to a kind of high school boarding life style.

That changed with my growing up and the sense of my love for this country overcame the misconceptions. It was at varsity that I made a decision to join the army immediately upon my completion of my first degree in Public Administration.  Many of my friends took the corporate route and I opted for the barracks.

I joined the BDF as a fresh graduate and went to become a second lieutenant because of entry qualifications. I have been afforded various opportunities these past 10 years to study, grow and mature. I have never thought at any particular day that I will be in this state of distress. Mainly because I am not a politician I find the status quo disturbing. I am probably feeling the pinch because I somehow detest politics.

Though at varsity I was taught that I can’t run away from politics, I have always, as I still believe that my service to this nation is without political portfolio. I am a soldier who has fully dedicated his life to protecting this country, borders and its citizens. I have taken several oaths in the course of my duty and I am happy to be keeping them and being true to national service.

I am not writing this to explain myself, I am writing this literally scared, scared that it is for the first time that I have found so much hostility towards a government that I am supposed to protect. I shall however continue to protect this government, its citizens and this land as my oath prescribes. I am however scared that partisan politics have found way into the military barracks to a point where military secrets are being shared with the media and sadly these secrets are being shared by my fellow military men. In sharing these secrets, my fellow military men are not only risking the security of the country but are also in the same process risking their own lives, our lives and the lives of our wives, our children and our families.

A few days back my wife brought home a local newspaper which carried a story that soldiers will not be allowed to vote. I read the story as in involved me. But what shocked and scared the hell out of me was the mentioning of missions, dates of dispatch, and where and how our operations will be coordinated. My wife wanted to discuss the dates of missions and it appalled me. But then I realised that she was not wrong, the information was all in the newspaper as public information.

The paper has all the dates, it has all the locations and the units of dispatch. This is the first time I have ever come across such a thing in my career as a soldier. I am used to a discreet Botswana Defence Force. Not a BDF that tells the whole world how we will be carrying out operations. That in my continued military studies and my military career is risking the lives of officers, the security of the country and the lives of citizens whom we are supposed to protect.

I am pleading with my fellow military men that what they share with their political friends and media friends should not be that which jeopardises the lives we are entrusted to protect. I am a soldier who also knows that it is an offence within all ranks of military service to discuss such sensitive matters with third parties. I am not saying this because I am more comfortable than others as a senior military officer. I am staying this because I care about everyone including junior officers under my care at the barracks. My point is not to fault find, but to caution as a fellow military man.

I have discussed this with some of the soldiers and they will probably realise at the on go that it is me who has penned this. I have taken such a decision because I realised it is the space that can reach as much as possible my fellow military men. I am pleading with you colleagues to remember the primary oath we took and subsequent oaths that we continue to take. Maybe my lack of political interest is misleading me, but I am pleading that we do our duty to protect he nation and not get involved in partisan politics and be used by politicians.  Growing up I wanted to be a soldier, a protector of the nation and not the one who risks the country and its citizens.

In the past election I was, just as many of my fellow military men stationed outside our bases but were allowed to vote where we had registered.  I personally don’t have any reason to believe that we can be denied an opportunity to vote. We joined the army to serve the nation and not put it at risk so please let us be careful with the information we share with civilians.

It is fine to shine about some of the exercises that we under go, especially when the missions have been completed and when they do not expose the operations of military service and national security. But it is utterly wrong to share information that we were all trained and taught at the very first lessons of military service to keep to ourselves. It is for the first time since I fell in love with being a soldier as little boy growing up in the streets of Tlokweng to becoming a real soldier that I have developed a feeling that perhaps it is time to quit. Sadly this feeling is brought by the realisation that within us are those who mistook military service oath for a joke.

Yet at the same time I have been trained and taught not to quit when the going gets tough. Colleagues, please desist from endangering our lives and the security of the country and citizens we are supposed to protect by sharing confidential missions.

 

From Thebephatshwa Barracks, Lieutenant Godfrey Letsholo