The uppity military
I once had a senior commander who (in private discussions with senior staff) would wryly refer to “our masters” (ie, our masters in Washington). I remember chatting with another officer after a staff meeting where the commander had made that crack. My friend said, with a shrug, hey, in some ways we are like slaves to the system. “Like” is an important word in that comment, a very important word. The subject came up again in the mess hall. Yup, the civilians are our masters. Someday we will get to be civilians again. A senior NCO friend of mine used to tell me “you just wait til I retire, then all hell’s breaking loose.” (He assured me he had several things he was going to tell “the masters” — meaning the politicians. He also had a bunch of gripes about the US Army personnel system. I know he’s retired now and hell hasn’t broken loose, probably because he’s enjoying retirement.)
That graf is background prep for Ken Allard’s must read article in today’s San ANtonio Express-News, “Uppity Military Slapped Around in CIA Uproar.”
Key grafs:
…the Hayden controversy wasn’t about some general on horseback lording it over subservient civilians. This was about class divisions in a nation at war. Think I’m kidding? Just listen to the condescending, eyeglasses-down-the-nose tut-tutting of the New York Times: “It seems ill-advised to put an Air Force general at the helm of the CIA, a civilian agency.”
If their tone sounds vaguely familiar, that’s probably because it is. Just imagine if the Times editorial had said, “It seems ill-advised to put a black or Hispanic as head of the CIA, there in suburban Virginia where so many white people work.”
Such an appearance of institutional racism would have been instantly recognized and deplored — maybe even by blockading the trucks delivering the Times to your local Starbucks.
But the same sloppy thinking, mindless stereotypes and casual acceptance of second-class citizenship that once marked American race relations all now reign unchallenged whenever the military class appears to be getting a little uppity. Fact is, there is a gap — already miles-wide and growing every day — between the American people and their highly professional military.
Read the entire essay. Cry when you quit laughing.
UPDATE: A reader writes via email:
What is never really discussed is that the gulf is what the left in this country wanted in the first place. They were tired of the draft, they wanted it gone. So, the military, rather than force itself upon unwilling people, found a new way to get the troops they needed.And, in a classic case of unintended consequences, the military ended up prospering. In fact, they no longer want to receive draftees - or anyone who might not want to be in the military in the first place. And as a result, the United States has a much better military than before. And now, the left wonders why they and the military seem to be from different planets.
The left told the military to get out of their lives. The military obliged, and prospered. In a sense, I’m not that upset. I’ll admit that I am bemused, if anything. The left wanted the military out of its life, got what they wanted, and now they are madder than hell because rather than wilt away, the military has prospered. The gulf is a problem, but overall, I think that the changes to an all-volunteer force have given the country a better military, and as a result, the country is much more secure.
