Decline Of Senior Officer Integrity And Civilian Control Of The Military
10th May 2024
Public confidence in the military has slipped. One major reason is the politicization of senior military officers, who show an increasing propensity to compromise their integrity to gain influence and achieve both budgetary and policy goals. Their willingness to spin carefully parsed and knowingly misleading testimony and advice compromises civilian control of the military. Simply stated, these generals and admirals are not providing full and complete representations of plans, concepts, and assessments to senior civilians in the executive and legislative branches, thereby depriving them of the unbiased information they require to make decisions required by the Constitution.
Generals are required by their positions to be political, since a lot of their job is dealing with civilian politicians both at home and abroad. Some, like Norman Schwarzkopf, rise above it. Some, like Wesley Clark, don’t.