There was a time when I thought the “ liberal” ideologues would not be able to ruin the military, that the institution would stand on its values because its mission is compellingly fundamentally strategic to national survival.
Boy was I wrong, and it went down SO fast. A POTUS like Bill Clinton I thought was the beginning, but maybe not.
I remember walking out of the Pentagon river entrance on Clinton’s inauguration day, after a 12 hour night shift over some crisis…and by the dawn’s early light there was a great big Pentagon rat just sitting there by the flagpole, staring at me. I saw it as a sign.
This country was founded by men who had a deep distrust of a standing army and career soldiers — for good reason.