Bleeding Talent: How the U.S. Military Mismanages Great Leaders and Why It's Time for a Revolution

• Author: Josef Daskal
• Position: Israel Defense Forces
• Pages: 281-290

2013] BOOK REVIEWS 281

BLEEDING TALENT: HOW THE U.S. MILITARY

MISMANAGES GREAT LEADERS AND WHY IT’S TIME

FOR A REVOLUTION1

REVIEWED BY MAJOR JOSEF DASKAL*

Public services are never better performed than when

their reward comes only in consequence of their being

performed, and is proportioned to the diligence

employed in performing them.2

I. Introduction

On January 17, 2001, in his farewell address, exiting Secretary of

Defense William S. Cohen shared with the audience the answer he had

given when asked by foreign leaders how their military could be more

like America’s. It’s not just rigorous training, advanced technology, and

revolutionary tactics, he explained, “We have the finest military on Earth

because we have the finest people on Earth, because we recruit and we

retain the best that America has to offer.”3

In Bleeding Talent, Dr. Tim Kane offers a different view of the

American military. He proposes that the military indeed recruits the best

America has to offer4 and turns them into great leaders,5 but fails so

badly at retaining them that it should serve as a “cautionary tale” for

other organizations. 6

Ten years and two wars after Cohen’s speech, when it was Secretary

of Defense Robert S. Gates’s turn to bid the troops farewell, he expressed

* Israel Defense Forces. Student, 62nd Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course, The

Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, U.S. Army, Charlottesville,

Virginia.

1 TIM KANE, BLEEDING TALENT: HOW THE US MILITARY MISMANAGES GREAT LEADERS

AND WHY IT’S TIME FOR A REVOLUTION (2012).

2 2 ADAM SMITH, AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF

NATIONS bk. 5, ch. 1, pt. 2, 211 (Edwin Canna ed., Methuen & Co.1904) (1776),

available at http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/sm WN.html.

3 William S. Cohen, Sec’y of Def., Remarks as Delivered at Fort Myer, Virginia (Jan.

17, 2001), available at http://www. defense.gov/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=320.

4 KANE, supra note 1, at 7, 37–41.

5 Id. at 43–51.

6 Id. at 25, 85–107.