Civilian Control of the Military

An utterly misguided and foolhardy recent editorial on huffingtonpost has called for a military coup against President Bush. However, for a long time now, the manner in which the present administration has handled the principle of civilian control of the military has deeply bothered me. This handling has, I would maintain, significantly weakened the nation's commitment to the principle in a variety of ways, including:

• military commanders have not been held strictly and visibly accountable for a variety of grave failures

• avid pursuit of privatization of a variety of military functions and further failing to enact policies that hold these military contractors to standards of conduct at least consistent with the principle of civilian control of the military

• rhetoric in a range of contexts that frequently sidles up to the idea of allowing the military to make policy decisions, e.g., listening to the troops

• disconnecting a majority of Americans from an "ownership" relationship with the military through a refusal to ask for significant shared sacrifice

• equivocation on the obligations of the U.S. Military under both U.S. and international law

The breadth and seriousness of this record warrants that any responsible position of outrage grounded in the principle of the profound importance of civilian control of the military should recognize these ongoing, real policies that actually are - as we "speak" - undermining the principle.