generals are supposed to be apolitical.
Eisenhower never voted. I read he was scrupulous about this.
They are not supposed to have political allegiance to the Pres. They serve our nation and whoever is CIC.
—correct—when I was a kid, it was a tradition that officers in the Armed Services didn’t vote—
generals are supposed to be apolitical.
Eisenhower never voted. I read he was scrupulous about this.
They are not supposed to have political allegiance to the Pres. They serve our nation and whoever is CIC.
Agreed. That;s why we are not just anohter junta-land.
Both Quantico and Centcom have been trying to hack the Post & Email news website for some time now. That’s how apolitical the military leadership is. They know who their enemy is, and it’s not necessarily Al Qaeda.
I’m really, really worried for our military if they DON’T stand up against Obama, because he may be literally making them into his banana-republic storm-troopers.
The Generals still have a responsibility to speak up when things are wrong, and to take care of their troops. You always have a right to voice your concerns, I see no problem in this. Our troops are being fed into the meat grinder known as the politically correct war of Ashtrashistan because of this administration. It’s about time someone stands up and does something.
Eisenhower never voted. I read he was scrupulous about this.
That was the old Regular Army. But even in the Old Army that was more of an ideal than reality. Most of our early generals were political, throughout the 19th century. Both politicians appointed to as generals and generals who went into politics.
In the late 19th and into 20th century, the professional tradition -- including not voting -- developed, but applied primarily below the general officer level. Truly, successful general officers have to be political in one way or another (if not especially partisan). MacArthur was tremendously political (his mother was very well connected, and his father was a Civil War general and later governor of the Philippines), so were Pershing and Patton.
Growing up, I knew lots of professional officers who did not vote, but that hasn't been true since the last of the pre-Vietnam guys (commissions pre-1960) left service.
Nobody is a apolitical...they should not sacrifice good military judgment to carry out poorly formed strategy. Speaking to Rolling Stone was probably not the best idea.
...They are not supposed to have political allegiance to the Pres.
Their allegiance needs to be the constitution. A lot of people sight to the fact that the President can give an unlawful order (as can anyone in the chain of command).
That said, I am not a fan of some of the decisions McChrystal has made (discouraging the use of flack jackets by our troops in civilian populations, for example).
No virtue in that. Whether or not he votes is his decision. He was making a political statement by revealing that.