“Let me see your war face!”  
“Argh!”  
“Bullshit, you didn’t convince me! Let me see your REAL war face!”

@PonyPon  
You don’t blame soldiers for war. You blame the general.

@Karackas  
One member’s actions?

@Karackas
 
Blame the writers

I used to think Shining was probably a below-average commander, but this episode confirmed it.
 
He made shit decisions: let a child go on a manhunt, let his soldiers destroy his castle in the search, did nothing to stop the pandemonium in the streets, panicked the public by releasing what should have been classified military information, failed to establish a perimeter around the city, neglected his family’s safety, didn’t halt public transportation, intimidated ponies into accepting his personal vendetta, commanded his troops through fear, ostracized an entire species based on one member’s actions, and told his troops to spread out when pairing them would have made much more tactical sense.
 
…Wow, I didn’t expect the list to be so long.

“All right, all you men clear out. We’re bringing out my baby daughter, who we think might be a target for kidnapping, into the open space of a public square, while we confront a group of suspected changelings a few feet away, so we certainly don’t need any guards around!”

@Miss Shy  
Well, he’s still taller than Cadance, so it might be that those guards are HUGE.

We need to arrest and interrogate every citizen in order to protect the empire from changelings! You do remember to prepare the waterboarding rack ,didn’t you?

He’s so SHORT