Politicization of the Military.

The military is more and more becoming politicized. Soon there will always be a political acrimony between the Whitehouse and the Military. This is a bad thing. Its bad enough we have one political party that can not trust or be trusted by the Military but do we need two? We need two parties to trust and be trusted by the military and the generals speaking out against their civilian leadership is not doing the military any favors.

The Australian reports on a statement by Christopher Dodd:

However, senator Christopher Dodd said the few generals who had dared to speak out represented just a small fraction of the far larger number of detractors.

"Generals are not in the habit, even as retirees, of going around being critical of the civilian leadership. This is a very, very important event," the Democrat politician said.

Source: The Australian - Generals rally to defend Rumsfeld I find Christopherr Dodd's statement This is a very, very important event," as being true. However, it is an important event in the bad sense. Did Mr. Dodd feel all the military criticism of the Clinton administration and his feeble attempts at using the military as important events? I would guess not. In fact, criticism of President Clinton was often carried out by active duty officers, where those equally important? Yes they were, and those officers were reprimanded or retired for that criticism, action I fully supported.

Fact of the matter is global conflict whether hot, cold, or in between involves many different types of human activity. Armed force is only one of those human activities and the President along with their cabinet secretaries direct and coordinate those activities. The military is a tool in the hands of the Administration and the military is expected to advise and counsel on the use of the tool, but in the end it is the Administration that decides how and when the military goes to war.

The President commands the military through the Secretary of Defense and the military is obligated by the constitution to takes its orders from the President not from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not from the general at Centcom but from the President's office.