Civilian control of the U.S. armed forces is a fundamental democratic principle that our military men and women internalize from day one. Officers swear to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or Domestic." When administering that oath to enlisted personnel, we add the words "I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me." We hear and repeat those words countless times during a career. We take them seriously.
Link to article: 'Generals put us on slippery slope' by BILL CENTER, GUEST COLUMNIST, Seattle Post Intelligencer
Bill Center, president of the Washington Council on International Trade, retired from the U.S. Navy as a rear admiral in 1999. He teaches the graduate seminar in American Foreign Policy at the UW's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and blogs about globalism and trade at www.seattlepi.com.
Technorati tags: War, War critic, General Zinni, Warfare, Politics, Iraq, Pentagon, Rumsfeld, Army, Senators, Contingencies, Troops, Combatant, Iraqi Freedom, Generals Revolt, Revolt, Commander-in-Chief, President, CENTCOM, soldier-statesman, Rumsfeld, Partisan politics, Partisan, Threat assessment, Slippery Slope, Opinion
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