In a way, we suffer from our domesticated and housebroken military. On the plus side, we don’t have to worry about coups, juntas and leadership by “Colonel of the Month.”
On the minus side, our military is like the stormtrooper clones from Star Wars. They will carry out the orders of the civilian political leadership, no matter how bad that leadership is.
We also have a lot of turnover in our military leadership. Many general officers vie for the top spots. Those spots change almost on an annual basis. It does keep the officers from getting too comfy in their commands, and forces older officers into retirement. Not doing this was a serious problem for the French in 1940 as we will discuss next year.
Barry has a lot of potential appointments to make, and he will fill the top command and staff posts with his loyal military bootlickers. This differs from the Prussian General Staff tradition of having the army select its own leadership.
We are much worse off than Germany. Our military has always been under the complete authority of the civilians, both good and bad.
By the way, I still have a problem with hanging Jodl and Keitel at Nuremberg, as well as the trials of all the other generals like von Manstein. For the military, I do believe that “I was following orders” is a lawful defense. It is not the responsibility of the military to select their civilian political leadership, and they are supposed to follow orders.
I totally agree with you especially with regards to Gen. Jodl who was posthumuosly acquitted in a West German court of all war crimes. Gen. Jodl was a professional military staff officer who was no worse than Admirals Donitz and Raeder who received prison sentences.
The instant I read that the name Giraud popped into my head. You know your pompus when even de Gaulle can't stand you.