Reflection on "the fog of war"

The movie Fog of War is a good film in its presentation of the role of leadership in US foreign politics and the non-elected leaders. McNamara hinted at two important aspects of leadership, his managerial leadership, ethics and responsibility.  We’ve have been talking a lot about the styles and theories of leadership, we however have only started touching onto ethics and have not even questioned responsibility. The new questions of leadership shouldn’t always revolve around how to become a leader but should, after what we have learned from the past, include the question of responsibility. Responsibility seems to be for McNamara a central issue not only in his own positioning in the US government. It is interesting to see that although others see him as a leader, he himself does not acknowledge his own capacity to lead probably because in the end he was still following orders, those of the president. The contrast is even more representative of how high ranked US officials act and are seen. In the presidential debate yesterday for example, President Obama took responsibility for the actions of his government. This serves to prove that although leadership is present at all levels of government and international security, the public often forgoes recognizing the value of these type of leaders on the other levels. In such, many forget the ultimate value of McNamara’s leadership, his capacity to mobilize and solve problems faced by the majority.