Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
U.S. citizens show deference to the armed forces regardless of their political persuasion. Their willingness to let the generals decide is a threat to the democratic tradition of civilian oversight.
Comments
While the basic arguments here are sound, and I don't have much evidence to back this up, but the title and premise here strikes me as a bit of a disingenuous straw man argument.
I don't hear many people say "support the Pentagon" or "support our generals" too much since like, the lies of Vietnam days and Senator Proxmire's Golden Fleece Awards to the Pentagon.
What I do think a lot of people agree with is "support the troops" meaning: we should support the troops, the grunts, after they've been inserted into a situation which one may or may not agree with. I think attitudes towards "the brass" may very well be a different story
A quick google to look for supporting polls wasn't too fruitful, probably because I am not thinking of the right keywords, but I did find this:
A New Poll Shows the Public Is Overwhelmingly Opposed to Endless US Military Interventions
There is a wide bipartisan majority that seeks an American foreign policy of realism and restraint.
By James Carden @ The Nation, JANUARY 9, 2018
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/03/2018 - 8:00pm
The way I see it is that the premise of the article is that civilian control of the military is to be preferred and the only debate by those who agree is how far down into operations and tactical control that civilian power should go. The danger described by the title is that the American public is so enamored of the military that they will accept turning the military leaders loose to act on their own and that Trump is, to some extent, doing that. As bad as many military decisions by civilian leadership have been, I certainly do not see allowing military leaders to make political decisions as a better way to go.
If I were reading the title as a stand alone statement I would strongly agree, America [ to a great extent] does have blind faith in its military and that is very dangerous in several ways. And, I am not arguing with the stats, people say what they say, but I cannot think of an easier thing to say with a more hollow phrase than ‘I support the troops’.
by A Guy Called LULU on Mon, 12/03/2018 - 10:41pm
Two interesting pieces I found:
1. Here's a Dec. 2016 op-ed by Sen. Kristen Gillibrand arguing that Mattis should not be Defense Secretary because he's not a civilian:
Civilian Control of the Military Is Fundamental to American Democracy
It was part of a group of op-eds responding to NYTimes editor's question
Is It Wrong to Have a General Run the Pentagon?
The law bars officers from being defense secretary for seven years after service. For Gen. James Mattis, Congress must pass a waiver.
The other two op eds:
PETER D. FEAVER, POLITICAL SCIENTIST
As Deference to Generals Grows, Civilian Control Suffers
JAMES JOYNER, MARINE CORPS COMMAND AND STAFF
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2. Here's a WaPo analysis Feb. 2018 by these political scientists
Germán Feierherd is a postdoctoral associate at Yale University’s Program on Democracy and Bright Line Watch.
Noam Lupu is associate professor of political science and associate director of LAPOP at Vanderbilt University.
Susan Stokes is John S. Saden Professor of Political Science at Yale University and a co-founder of Bright Line Watch.
of polls.
A significant minority of Americans say they could support a military takeover of the U.S. government
This does not surprise me. Rather, I think: why would they expect U.S. population to be so different on this front?
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/04/2018 - 8:54am