Interesting point.
The founders clearly understood human nature, which is constant regardless of the time period. But what they couldn’t have predicted was how far the American citizen let their government descend into totalitarianism and how it would affect the various institutions, like the military in this case. Theirs was a time of extremely limited military involvement, compared to our modern forces being involved in almost everything almost everywhere. Or a defense industry that profits greatly from conflict. The founders did their job, but subsequent generations of Americans should have voted in good elected officials and kept the Marxists and military adventurists out.
That said, I don’t know how well the Joint Chiefs would work without a chairman. If only we still had men whose character matched the World War II veteran Joint Chiefs chairmen and not jackoffs like Mark Milley.
> That said, I don’t know how well the Joint Chiefs would work without a chairman. <
It would be a bit chaotic, as the members might disagree with one other. And that’s exactly the way it should be! The President would then be able to hear many different, co-equal viewpoints.
As it is now, the Chairman has the weight. His viewpoint drowns out all others. And if the Chairman is an idiot, that’s a very dangerous thing.