Activist Soldiers

Can’t say I agree with Andrew Bacevich often, but I think he is right in his latest article in The Atlantic discussing “the increased politicization of the American military and its troubling potential consequences.” Here is the quote:

… empowering groups of soldiers to join in the debate over contentious issues is short-sighted and dangerous. Implicit in the appeal is the suggestion that national-security policies somehow require the consent of those in uniform. Lately, media outlets have reinforced this notion, reporting as newsworthy the results of polls that asked soldiers whether administration plans meet with their approval.

On matters of policy, those who wear the uniform ought to get a vote, but it’s the same one that every other citizen gets””?the one exercised on Election Day. To give them more is to sow confusion about the soldier’s proper role, which centers on service and must preclude partisanship. Legitimating soldiers’ lobbies is likely to warp national-security policy and crack open the door to praetorianism.

See an interview of Bacevich here and check out the An Appeal for Redess website.

Bacevich has made it on CA before, in Curzon’s review of his review of Imperial Grunts.